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The patent and the royalty on Honeycrisp expired in 2008.

The University of Michigan blundered by marketing the apple under the varietal name; varietals are considered inherently generic under trademark rules and so ineligible for protection.

A Pink Lady apple is actually a Cripps Pink, grown and picked in accordance with certain quality standards. Anyone can sell a Cripps Pink, but only licensees of Brandt's Fruit Trees Inc can sell a Pink Lady.

TIL about the "International Pink Lady Alliance"!

Alum here. Minnesota != Michigan. Boo.

Anecdotally, UMN has one of the best agriculture research programs in the world, and it's entirely based around figuring out how to grow really anything when first frost is early September (Minnesota).

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