EPO & PATENTS On Conventional Plants and Animals

March 30, 2007

In This NEWS Bulletin ******************************** 1. The right to protest - The European Patent Office’s decision to grants patents to conventional crops is worrying farmers’ groups 2. Farmers against patenting of seeds - From The Fields The right to protest The European Patent Office’s decision to grants patents to conventional crops is worrying farmers’ groups http://www.indianexpress.com/story/26990.html ASHOK B SHARMAPosted online: Friday, March 30, 2007 at 0000 hrs Delhi: The European Patent Office (EPO) has opened a Pandora’s box by deciding to grant patent rights to seeds developed through conventional breeding processes. They

have begun to grant both product and process patents for these, and as an interim ruling, EPO’s Enlarged Board of Appeal (EBA) has decided to grant a general patent on broccoli. The development is of special concern to India because farm exports from the country, as also from other developing countries, to Europe would be at stake, as such a measure may lead to patenting of a large number of crops. Trade disputes may, therefore, become inevitable, according to experts. The immediate reaction to the EPO’s plan to grant general patent rights to conventional crops has been the collective protest by farmers from India, Europe and Latin America, who have gathered in Munich, where the EPO is based. The Indian farmers are represented by the Bharat Krishak Samaj. In a telephonic conversation from Munich, the executive chairman of the Bharat Krishak Samaj, Krishan Bir Chaudhary, said, “We will fight for our sovereign rights over seeds and farm animals. We cannot afford to lose our rights to MNCs. We know the strategy of MNCs like Monsanto, which sued Canadian farmer Percy Schmieser for ownership of his conventional canola seeds, after having his field contaminated by pollen from the

nearby genetically modified (GM) canola fields.” The EPO’s decision to accord such patent rights flows from the ruling of the EBA, which is also to decide on the validity of a patent on broccoli (EP 1069819 B1) this year. Since 1980, the EPO has granted patent rights to over 151 GM crops from the 285 applications it received. It has now on its agenda the grant of patent rights to conventionally bred seeds and animals. The farmers have been joined by NGOs like Greenpeace,

Misereor, Swissaid, The Declaration of Berne and No Patents on Life, and have issued a global appeal against the EPO’s decision. On April 28, the EPO rejected an application for a patent on sunflowers derived from normal breeding (EP1185161), which was filed by Greenpeace. “We will file another appeal against the EPO decision, as according to the European Patent Convention, conventional plants cannot be patented, only GM crops can be,” said Christoph Then of Greenpeace. While patent claims have been made for soybean, the most threatening example is of Syngenta, which has claimed patent rights over a large sequences of rice genomes and is also extending its rights over genomic information of other crops. The EPO has

already granted a patent right to a Dutch company, Rijk Zwaan, on aphid-resistant plant composites (lettuce), and is slated to decide on patent rights for a method of increasing a specific compound in Brassica species. Monsanto too has claimed patent rights over pig breeding process. With such broad patents likely to be granted, Indian farmers’ groups feel it may jeopardise the country’s trade interest as well as farmers’ sovereignity over seeds. - Farmers against patenting of seeds http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=159223 ASHOK B SHARMA Posted online: Wednesday, March 28, 2007 at 0026 hours IST NEW DELHI, MAR 27: Indian farmers have joined hands with their counterparts in Europe and Latin America to protest against patenting of seeds and life forms. The Munich-based European Patent Office (EPO) has now become the target of attack as it has already granted hundreds of patents on genetically modified (GM) seeds as well as on seeds developed through conventional breeding process. Further the EPO has on its agenda for according general approval of patent rights over conventional breeding methods and normal plants and animals. EPO’s decision to accord such patent rights flows from the ruling of its Enlarged Board of Appeal which is also set to decide

on the validity of a patent on Broccoli (EP 1069819 B1), this year. “The approval of this patent would mean that in future a mere genetic description of a plant or animal would be sufficient to get a patent right covering the plant or animal as well as methods of their breeding. Thus the use of plants and animals would be controlled by the patent holders,” said Krishan Bir Chaudhary, the executive chairman of India’s largest farmers’ organisation - Bharat Krishak Samaj. In a telephonic conversation from Munich, Chaudhary further said : “We farmers will fight for our sovereign rights over seeds and farm animals. We cannot afford to lose our rights to multinational corporation. Our animals and seeds are the result of hundreds of years of breeding by our farmers.” Chaudhary was one of the appellant who recently got the EPO to revoke patent on Indian wheat landrace - Nap Hal. “Validating the patent on the Broccoli would mean a sellout of living nature,” said Christoph Then of Greenpeace. The farmers’ organizations from different countries alongwith NGOs like Greenpeace, Misereor, Swissaid, The Declaration of Berne and No Patents on Life launched a global appeal to protect their rights over seeds and animals and also launched a website. Among other major farmers’ union to joint the protest are Coldiretti of Italy and Federacion Agraria Argentina. The coalition of NGOs and farmers’ organizations is slated to attend a public hearing of an appeal procedure at EPO, relating to a patent on conventional sunflower seeds. They will also attend the EU patent conference organized by the German council presidency in Berlin.-

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