The U.S. patent on the Honeycrisp apple expires in November of this year, which means that no royalties will be collected on Honeycrisp trees propagated after that date. However, trees propagated by nurseries this year, before the patent expires, and sold next spring will still be subject to the royalties. Honeycrisp was released in 1991. In the United States, for applications filed before 1995, the patent term is 20 years from the date the patent was filed or 17 years from when the patent was issued, whichever date is the later. For applications filed since then, the term is 20 […]