Broccoli and tomato patents under scrutiny at European Patent Office
At the European Patent Office in Munich the Board of Appeal is debating whether patents on broccoli and tomatoes can be allowed.Broccoli patent
In 2002, a British company called Plant Bioscience Ltd. (PBL) was granted a patent EP 1069819 by the European Patent Office (EPO) for a method it developed which identified the anti-carcinogenic properties of broccoli, enabling the company to selectively breed plants with a high concentration of this property.
But the patent also covered the plants selected and produced by this method, not just the technical process itself, essentially giving the British company a European patent on broccoli. A Swiss company filed an appeal with the EPO, saying that what is essentially a biological process is not patentable.
Tomato patent
A similar patent EP1211926 was granted in 2000 to an Israeli company that had found a way to breed tomatoes with less water, but an appeal was lodged against that in 2004 on the same grounds.
Board of appeal EPO
On tuesday 20 July the EPO's Enlarged Board of Appeal in Munich started to review the two patents to determine whether these breeding processes and selection methods are biological processes or patentable technological processes.Patents like this exist already, but the current decision on the broccoli patent will set a precedent and affect future cases regarding plant or animal patents.
Expected Decision
The appeals board at the European Patent Office is set to wrap up the debate on the broccoli patent this week, but the decision will probably not be made public until later in the year.
Source: EPO 16 July and Deutsche Welle 20 July
