ALEXANDRIA, Va., Oct. 21 -- United States Patent no. 12,439,869, issued on Oct. 14, was assigned to Enza Zaden Beheer B.V. (Enkhuizen, Netherlands).
"Spotted watermelon plants" was invented by Laura Barham Brown (Salinas, Calif.) and Robert Barham (Salinas, Calif.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "The present invention relates to methods of breeding with spotted watermelon, Citrullus lanatus, lines and varieties. More specifically, methods of making homozygous-spotted diploid watermelon lines (HSDL) for use in breeding and methods of making homozygous-spotted tetraploid watermelon lines (HSDL) for use in breeding are described. Further, methods of producing 33%, 66%, or 100% spotted triploid hyb...