Do the 102 and 103 provisions apply to plant applications and patents?

The provisions of 35 U.S.C. §§ 102 and 103, which deal with novelty and non-obviousness respectively, indeed do apply to plant applications and patents. This is because plant patents are subject to the same basic requirements of patentability as utility and design patents.

Under § 102, an invention must be new, meaning it cannot have been publicly disclosed or described prior to the filing date of the patent application. For plant patents, this means that a new variety of plant must not have been sold or described publicly before the application is filed.

Similarly, under § 103, the invention must be non-obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art, which assesses whether the differences between the prior art and the claimed invention are substantial enough to warrant patentability. This principle holds true for plant patents as well, where the inventive step cannot be obvious based on existing plant varieties or hybrids.

To conclude, the correct understanding is that the provisions of novelty and non-obviousness are universally applicable, including to plant applications and patents.