Patents on plants derived from traditional cross-breeding

5.1.2016

Question for written answer E-000050-16
to the Commission
Rule 130
Miguel Viegas (GUE/NGL)

The European Patent Office (EPO) is granting more and more patents on plants resulting from conventional cross-breeding. A final decision is currently pending on a patent on tomatoes with reduced water content (EP1211926). This patent, together with a patent on broccoli (EP10698190), has attracted international attention and sparked intense controversy. In March 2015, the EPO used these two cases to create a precedent under which plants and animals derived from conventional cross-breeding are defined as patentable. More than a thousand patent applications concerning plants improved through traditional breeding are now pending.

Bearing in mind that Article 53(b) of the European Patent Convention (EPC) prohibits patents on plant varieties and on essentially biological production processes, and taking account of Parliament’s resolution of 10 May 2012 on the patenting of essential biological processes (2012/2623(RSP), which calls on the EPO to exclude products derived from conventional breeding and all conventional breeding methods from patenting, what steps will the Commission take to curb this private appropriation of biodiversity?