The European organization, Copa and Cogeca, have welcomed the initiative of EU ministers against the use of patents on plant varieties essentially obtained through biological processes. Copa has constantly stated that, "patent law is not the appropriate instrument for the EU agricultural sector."
This initiative was taken by the Council of Ministers of Competition, through the adoption of Council conclusions in support of the recommendations of the European Commission.
Last November, the Commission published a note emphasizing that the plants obtained through techniques that were essentially biological techniques could not obtain a patent. This recommendation goes against the practices of the European Patent Office (EPO), which has already authorized several patents for several products, such as tomatoes and broccoli, that were created using biological processes.
"The position of the ministers is positive," said the group's seed work president, Thor Cofoed. All breeders must have access to all genetic resources so that they can develop new varieties of the best quality to meet the future needs of a modern and diverse agricultural sector. The EU has a good Community system of plant varieties (CPRV), which grants intellectual property rights to new plant varieties and that provides royalties to finance plant variety programs so the patents are unnecessary," he said.
Source: agroinformacion.com