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ETC News: Monsanto's Species-Wide Patent on Trial

 

ETC Group

News Release

April 28, 2003

www.etcgroup.org

 

Monsanto's Species-Wide Patent on Trial:

 

May 6-7, European Patent Office Hears Patent Challenge in Munich

- Eight and One-Half Years Later!

 

Remember 1994? Nine years ago: Yasser Arafat, Yitzhak Rabin, and Shimon Peres

won the Nobel Peace Prize, Nelson Mandela was elected President of South Africa,

US President Bill Clinton sent ground troops to the Persian Gulf to counter a

move by Iraq's Saddam Hussein, and Brazil won the World Cup. The United Nations'

Biodiversity Convention entered into force in 1994 and the Uruguay Round of GATT

was drawing to a close. In the " life sciences " cosmos, Monsanto and Dupont were

chemical companies with minor interests in seeds and Syngenta did not yet exist.

ETC Group was known as RAFI. Also in 1994, a small biotech subsidiary of W.R.

Grace, Agracetus, won a breathtakingly broad patent on all genetically modified

soybean varieties, European Patent No. 301,749.

 

On May 6-7, 2003, almost nine years after ETC Group (formerly known as RAFI)

officially challenged Agracetus/W.R. Grace's patent monopoly on all genetically

modified soybeans, the European Patent Office will hold an oral hearing to

decide the fate of one of agbiotech's most notorious patents. It was the

emergence of species-wide patents on soybeans and cotton in the early 1990s that

first galvanized governments, scientists and CSOs to seriously question the

morality and ethics of intellectual property in the early 1990s. (1)

 

Specious Species Patent: On March 2, 1994 a US-based biotech company, Agracetus

(then-subsidiary of W.R. Grace & Co.), won a European patent on all genetically

engineered soybean varieties and seeds (regardless of the genes used) and all

methods of transformation (one of the patent's claims actually extends beyond

soya to other plant species!).(2) Even biotech industry insiders were stunned by

W.R. Grace's sweeping patent monopoly on one of the world's major food crops.

ETC Group, with the support of 18 civil society organizations worldwide, filed

formal opposition to the patent in December 1994.

 

ETC Group's 1994 " Notice of Opposition Against European Patent No. 301,749 " is

available here: http://www.etcgroup.org/documents/occ_vol1_5.pdf

 

" ETC Group believes that EPO must throw out Monsanto's patent because it is

technically flawed and morally unacceptable, " said Jim Thomas, the UK-based

Programme Officer of ETC Group. " We don't want the patent pruned - we want it

revoked, " said Thomas. " After waiting nine years to get an oral hearing, we are

firm in our conviction that intellectual property jeopardizes world food

security, undermines conservation and use of biodiversity, and increases the

economic insecurity of farming communities. Instead of promoting innovation,

intellectual property is stifling research, limiting competition and thwarting

new discoveries, " said Thomas.

 

At the European Patent Office in Munich, ETC Group will be represented by Mr.

Daniel Alexander, a London-based barrister specializing in intellectual property

law. Mr. Alexander served as a commissioner on the United Kingdom's Commission

on Intellectual Property Rights. In Munich, ETC Group will join Greenpeace and

other civil society organizations that are actively involved in opposing the

patent. Stephan Geene, an activist who cooperates with Greenpeace, was also

among the original patent challengers in 1994. The EPO has taken the unusual

step of scheduling two days for the hearing and has indicated that it will move

to a bigger room to accommodate the interested parties.

 

Musical monopoly chairs: ETC Group and Stephan Geene were not the only parties

to challenge the soybean patent back in 1994. We were joined by agrochemical and

seed industry giants who feared the patent would arrest soybean research

worldwide, including: Sandoz, Ciba Geigy, Monsanto, Dekalb, Pioneer Hi-Bred.

Where are they now? Sandoz and Ciba Geigy merged to become Novartis in 1996,

Monsanto took over Dekalb in 1998, and DuPont acquired Pioneer Hi-Bred in 1999.

RAFI changed its name to ETC Group in 2001.

 

Monsanto's About-Face: In 1994 Monsanto submitted an exhaustive, 292-page

opposition statement that shredded the technical merits of Agracetus's soybean

patent. Monsanto's lawyers wrote that the soybean patent should be " revoked in

its entirety, " is " not... novel " , " lacks an inventive step, " and " sufficient

disclosure [of scientific method] is woefully lacking. " But when Monsanto

acquired Agracetus in April 1996, it withdrew its challenge, reversed its

position and announced that it would defend its newly-acquired patent!(3)

 

Soybean Superpower: Back in 1994, genetically modified soybeans were not yet

commercially available. In 1996, Monsanto acquired the Agracetus company and its

soybean patent - just one of many biotech companies and patents Monsanto would

devour in its binge buying to gain supremacy in ag biotech.

 

Last year, Monsanto accounted for all of the GM soya seed planted worldwide --

occupying 36.5 million hectares in 2002 - that's over half of the 72 million

hectares devoted to all soybeans worldwide. In other words, Monsanto's exclusive

monopoly claims extend to more than one-half of the soya crop - one of the

world's most important food feed and oilseed crops.(4) Worldwide, the commercial

soybean market was valued at over $22 billion in 2001. (5)

 

" The statistics speak for themselves, " said Hope Shand, Research Director of ETC

Group. " Monsanto is the world's only GM soybean superpower, a single company has

been awarded monopoly control over one of the world's most important food

crops. " " The existence of EP No. 301,749 has been and remains a strong deterrent

to any competition trying to challenge Monsanto's dominance in GM soybean

research and markets, " said Shand.

 

" We realize that Monsanto's species-wide soybean patent is just one of the

factors behind Monsanto's present-day monopoly on GM soybeans, but this is a

dangerous precedent that cannot be allowed to stand, " explained Shand.

 

While soya is a relatively minor crop in Europe, it is a major commodity in

other regions, including China, India, Argentina, Brazil and North America. If

Monsanto's patent is allowed to stand, it could set a dangerous precedent. Even

the United States government struck-down the species-wide cotton patent, and

refused to allow broad claims on all GM soybeans.(6) Now, nine years later, it's

time for the EPO to act!

 

ETC Group will join Greenpeace Germany at a press conference in Munich on

Monday, 5 May, 11:00 hrs, the day before the EPO hearing on Monsanto's patent.

Hope Shand and Jim Thomas of ETC Group will attend the EPO hearing and will be

available to respond to media inquiries.

 

For more information:

 

Hope Shand, ETC Group (USA) hope -- 919 960-5223

Jim Thomas, ETC Group (UK) jim -- cell: 44 (0)7752 106806

Silvia Ribeiro, ETC Group (Mexico) siliva -- from outside Mexico

City: +52 55 2653 3330 Calling within Mexico City: 44 55 2653 3330

Hope Shand and Jim Thomas can be reached in Munich, May 5-7, cell: 44 7752

106806

 

For additional information about the press conference in Munich, please contact:

 

Uli Brendel, Greenpeace Germany Ulrike.Brendel

Phone: + 49-171-87 80 844 (cell)

 

 

The Action Group on Erosion, Technology and Concentration, formerly RAFI, is an

international civil society organization headquartered in Canada. The ETC group

is dedicated to the advancement of cultural and ecological diversity and human

rights. www.etcgroup.org. The ETC group is also a member of the Community

Biodiversity Development and Conservation Programme (CBDC). The CBDC is a

collaborative experimental initiative involving civil society organizations and

public research institutions in 14 countries. The CBDC is dedicated to the

exploration of community-directed programmes to strengthen the conservation and

enhancement of agricultural biodiversity. The CBDC website is

www.cbdcprogram.org .

 

Endnotes:

 

1 For example, ETC Group (then RAFI) participated in the Crucible Group, a

non-consensus process involving governments, industry, scientists, CSOs and

indigenous peoples from North and South, to examine policy issues related to

biodiversity and intellectual property.

2 The claims of the patent are 1-25. Claims 1-16 are to methods of making

'genetically transformed' soybean plants using a particle accelerator (gene

gun). Claims 17-20 are to 'genetically transformed' soybean seeds, however

produced. Claim 21 is to seed claimed in claim 17 obtainable by a method claimed

in any of claims 1-16. Claim 24 is to a method of making 'a genetically

transformed line of plants' (any plants, not just soybean plants) by the

processes defined in claims 1-17, followed by growing the transformed plant to

produce seed, self-pollinating the seed, growing it and assaying its progeny.

Claim 25 is to applying this process to soybeans.

3 ETC Group (then as RAFI) reported on the reversal in the July/August 1996

Communique, available on the Internet:

http://www.etcgroup.org/article.asp?newsid=199

4 Based on statistics available on Monsanto's website (www.monsanto.com) and

statistics on global GM area provided by ISAAA (www.isaaa.com).

5 According to FAO Statistical Databases, 2001. www.fao.org

6 The US equivalent of the Monsanto EPO patent, is US patent no. 5,015,580. It

is much narrower than the European patent. Claims are only to processes of

transforming soybeans and soybean lines. There are no independent product

claims, and no claims to transforming plants other than soybeans. US patent no.

5,159,135, the Agracetus' species-wide claim on all GM cotton, was revoked by

the US Patent & Trademark Office after being re-examined in 1994.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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