PowerPollen now has a patent for applying preserved or fresh pollen outside the window of natural pollination of maize seed. With PowerPollen’s pollination on-demand technology, pollination is no longer reliant on the male plant’s daily shedding window of approximately three hours, and U.S. Patent 10,905,060 for the technology was recently granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
Prior to the development of this technology, hybrid corn seed was only produced when female plants were pollinated by rows of male plants. Pollination is reliant on the perfect “nick,” or timing, to ensure the female flower is receptive at the same time the male is releasing pollen. This PowerPollen innovation applies collected pollen to female plants any time of day or night, maximizing yield and reducing the impact of adverse weather conditions and other factors that impede pollination.
“As we continue to scale our technology to meet customer demand, protecting our intellectual property remains a key part of our business strategy to expand the benefits of our unique pollination on-demand invention,” says Jason Cope, co-founder and chief intellectual property officer. “This new patent helps us ensure the highest level of quality standards for pollen preservation products as well as the use of best practices in handling collected and preserved pollen to improve yield, purity and crop quality.”
The patent establishes PowerPollen as the only company that can practice this technology 24 hours a day, including times when the male plants are not shedding pollen. It also enables a field of entirely female plants to be pollinated by preserved pollen collected from a wider variety of male hybrids.
The patent covers seed production technologies that form the foundation of many of PowerPollen’s technologies and services. In addition, the new patent is complemented by PowerPollen’s other novel patents, including pollen preservation and fieldconditioning techniques.
“This patent further demonstrates our commitment to expand our pollination technology and defend our leadership position in this area as we prepare for the 2021 growing season,” Cope says.
