Patenting of Plants in Europe

The CIPA Life Sciences Committee have produced a Position Paper on the Patenting of Plants in Europe.

The paper considers the decisions of the Enlarged Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office (EPO) last year in the cases G2/12 (“Broccoli II”) and G2/13 (“Tomatoes II”). The EPO held that Article 53 of the European Patent Convention (EPC) which excludes the patentability of essentially biological processes for the production of plants does not impact on the patentability of plants or plant material per se obtained from such processes.

The paper sets out CIPA’s position on selected issues concerning the patentability of plants and the scope of protection afforded by plant patents.

CIPA believes that the Enlarged Board’s decision is reasonable: and in any event opposes attempts to change the law, because of the uncertainty that would result.

Download the full response below.

Date Published: 15 August 2016; a 2019 paper sent to the IPO is also available here.

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