When new technology, scientific methods or plant varieties are developed at Cornell, legal protections are often required to safeguard their creation. Securing patents and plant variety rights is the first step in transforming scientific breakthroughs into farm-ready crops.
Today, Cornell ranks in the top 20 of universities in the United States in the number of patents granted, according to the National Academy of Inventors. In 2024 alone, 107 United States patents were issued to Cornell researchers and 477 licenses and commercialization options were granted across the University system.
These inventions are legally protected under intellectual property laws by a dedicated team bringing innovation to consumers — which is the Center for Technology Licensing at Cornell. Since the University's founding, over 290 apple, grape, berry and vegetable varieties have been developed and many have been patented at research stations across New York.
This includes some of the most commercialized crop varieties that have emerged from Cornell's fields including Butternut and Honeynut squashes, SnapDragon and RubyFrost apples and the DMR 401 Cucumber — which is the first cucumber variety equipped to combat the new strain of Downy Mildew, which caused an agricultural pandemic on the East Coast.
Read more at The Cornell Sun