Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Coming To Plates In Europe: Patented Vegetables, Produced By Conventional Breeding

European Patent Organisation (EPO) is a rare entity. Despite its name, has nothing to do with the European Union. Instead, it was established on the basis of the European Patent Convention of 1973, the granting of patents under the Convention.



as an independent agency whose sole purpose is to supervise the granting of patents, which have a natural tendency to extend its reach. One of the most disputed that what happens is that software patents are not granted in Europe "as such" (you can imagine how fun that lawyers have with these two words).


In the final stages of expansion, the EPO appears to have a lustful eye on the world of vegetables. Here is the bottom of the "Broccoli" case of the EPO itself:
British plant biosciences company has obtained a European patent (EP1069819) for a method for producing plants with which you can be the level of potential anti-cancer substance in broccoli plants increased.
Limagrain French society and the Swiss group Syngenta has filed notice of opposition to the patent in 2003 and maintains its challenge in subsequent calls. They allege, among other things, that the patent protects a method of raising plants essentially biological excluded from patentability under the European Patent Convention (EPC) that binds to the EPO. The Technical Board of Appeal heard two appeals stayed the proceedings and referred to the Enlarged Board of Appeal (TSA) to clarify the term "essentially biological processes for the production of plants (or animals)" and exception corresponding to patentability.
The problem here is that the original patent was issued for the plants produced by the currents, "organic" methods, and those excluded from patentability. Where things get strange is when the plant biosciences removed part of his claim:

the licensee proposed to limit the original patent by excluding agricultural methods.
One would think that would be the end of the patent, but no luck. This is what the EPO wrote the following sentence at the top (and note to our old friend "as is"):

Therefore, only plants of broccoli, as such, are protected.


It's really crazy. The "owner" has removed any right to a patent on the method of agriculture - because, as the two companies has objections, such biological processes are not patentable. Yet still seems pretending plant biosciences

result

biological methods are not patentable, which is essentially what each farmer received since the dawn of agriculture through of passages.



Unfortunately, it seems likely that the revised application will be accepted, as the appeal against the patent has been revoked:
The two companies have Patent Appeal your request for a conditional public hearing if the Council decides not to follow the proposal of the patent owner. So now the board will issue its decision in writing.
unravel the logic there, this means that both companies opposed the patent called for a public hearing
only if

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