EU's ineffective plant patent ban: Privatisation of seeds continues
European Union legislation prohibits the patenting of plants. How do agrochemical companies bypass this ban?
Until recently, Europe’s seed market was highly diverse, with small and medium-sized companies independently developing new varieties of cereals, vegetables, fruits, and legumes. This diversity ensured the development of crops tailored to local conditions while mitigating the risk of a continent-wide crop failure due to a new virus or invasive insect species.
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Growing threat from the patent industry
While plant patenting is generally not legal in Europe, companies specialising in the technological modification of seeds bypass this regulation by patenting the gene modification processes they use in laboratories, classifying them as ‘technical innovations’.
According to Euronews, around 1,200 seed varieties in Europe are now covered by patents owned by major agrochemical corporations such as BASF, Bayer, and Syngenta. As a result, small-scale breeders cannot work with these varieties without paying costly licensing fees.
Breeders developing new plant varieties receive legal notices from these corporations, warning them of potential patent infringements. To ensure that their new crops do not inadvertently contain patented traits, smaller breeders would need to sequence the genes of all their plants—an expensive and time-consuming procedure.
Why doesn't the plant patent ban in Europe work?
The European Patent Office (EPO), responsible for granting patents, operates independently of the European Union. It was established by a treaty in 1973 and encompasses not only the 27 EU member states but also 12 other European countries, such as Norway, Switzerland, and the UK. The EPO relies heavily on fees from patent holders, with its 2020 budget exceeding €2.3 billion (approximately PLN 10 billion).
In 2017, the European Commission issued an interpretative notice on the 1998 Biotech Directive, stating that "products obtained by essentially biological processes" cannot be patented. Despite this, the EPO continues to issue patents for genetic sequences of seeds created through laboratory manipulation. In practice, this allows corporations to claim ownership over seeds developed through conventional breeding methods as well.
This places the burden of proof on small breeders, who must demonstrate that any patented gene sequences found in their plants occurred due to natural mutation rather than being the result of patented genetic processes.
Source: euronews.com
