Plant patents are becoming more common recently, especially in hybrid perennials, like coneflowers. A plant patent means that only the owner of the patent (or anyone he cares to allow) can reproduce the plant for sale. It would technically be illegal for you, after purchasing/growing it out, to offer divisions of the plant for sale. In this case, you could still grow out the seeds (although there are also seed patents which are much less common).
I would expect that the owner of the patent has decided that this plant grows quickly/easily and flowers well, and applied for the patent to prevent his competitors from cloning the plant as well. Much like copyright laws, to protect his patent, he must declare it on his product (similar to how photographers must use watermarks in order to protect their images). So it's less a sales pitch and more a competitive advantage. Also, remember that the company's target audience is not the "orchid connoisseur", so they don't care if they're reproducing a registered plant. The name they've given it is a description of the plant and a name that they've chosen to describe it, which makes it a NoID for us.
For orchids, with all the varieties, plant patents are relatively useless for the true collector because you can always find a similar flower that isn't patented. With less hybridized plants, it becomes a great business tool because the collector will have little choice in new hybrids. Coneflowers are a great example - not many hybrids, so you've only got 2 or 3 options for, say, a green and white double flower. And all of those options have plant patents.
"exotic orchid' a new patented variety?
Linear Mode
