Warty Pumpkin Patent: Siegers Seed Co. Loses Round 1

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On February 13, 2009, the United States Patent office formally rejected Siegers&rsquo; 25 claims on cucurbit warts. Patent examiner Ann R. Kubelik issued a non-final rejection of the entire package, however, Siegers has an opportunity to rebut and appeal the decision within 6 months (if all the deadline extensions are implemented). This is indeed good news for gardeners, breeders&nbsp;and pumpkin growers everywhere.</p>
<p>The patent was rejected for a number of reasons related to a somewhat sloppy application and for a number of reasons relating to the prevalence of warts on cucurbits historically, and the fact that warted pumpkin seed has been, and still is, for sale by other vendors.</p>
<p>Read Dr. Kubelik&rsquo;s 9-page Non-Final rejection document&nbsp;<a target=”_blank” href=”http://portal.uspto.gov/external/portal/!ut/p/kcxml/04_Sj9SPykssy0xPLMnMz0vM0Y_QjzKLN4gPMATJgFieAfqRqCLGpugijnABX4_83FT9IKBEpDlQxNDCRz8qJzU9MblSP1jfWz9AvyA3NDSi3NsRAHxEBJg!/delta/base64xml/L0lJSk03dWlDU1lKSi9vQXd3QUFNWWdBQ0VJUWhDRUVJaEZLQSEvNEZHZ2RZbktKMEZSb1hmckNIZGgvN18wXzE4TC8yNS9zYS5nZXRCaWI!#7_0_18L”>here</a>&nbsp;(click on &ldquo;Non-Final Rejection&rdquo; on that page).</p>
<p>Read my other posts on this topic&nbsp;<a href=”/search.aspx?search=siegers”>here</a>.</p>
<p>Thanks to GRIT blog commenter DLR for bringing this to my attention.</p>
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<a href=”http://www.grit.com/biographies/oscar-h-will” target=_self>Hank Will</a>
<em> raises hair sheep, heritage cattle and many varieties of open-pollinated corn with his wife, Karen, on their rural Osage County, Kansas farm. His home life is a perfect complement to his professional life as editor in chief at GRIT and Capper’s Farmer magazines. Connect with him on </em>
<a title=Google+ href=”https://plus.google.com/u/0/117459637128204205101/posts” target=_blank rel=author>Google+</a>.</p>