This is really bad. You shouldn’t be able to patent a living being.
>The little-known European Patent Office (EPO) grants those patents – an entity fully independent from Brussels and funded by corporate patent fees, whose decisions EU member states abide by.
This makes the EPO sound like some sort of shady corporate organisation. In reality, the EPO derives from and is bound to the European Patent Convention (EPC). Ultimately it is the member states who collectively decide on the European Patent Convention and with that on the duties and powers of the EPO.
The reason the EPO cannot be an EU institution is because the EPC has non-EU member states such as the UK, Turkey and Switzerland.
To clear some things up before people shoot from the hip in the comments:
– The period of protection of a European patent is 20 years (in some specific cases slightly longer). – Plant or animal varieties are explicitly excluded from patentability. This does not apply to microbiological processes or the products thereof. – A requirement for a valid patent is novelty, you cannot patent something which demonstrably already exists.
At this rate air will become a paid resource.
So the laws supposed to defend research and creativity do exactly the contrary, they protect only the big corps and their monopolies. So I say, fuck the patents on seeds.
Lmao, we’ll have to pay a subscription to plant some tomatoes
EPO does not fall within the EU????? What the hell? This constant obfuscation of who makes what decision is why everyone hates the EU… Someone somewhere is actively working to fuck up my future but who it is and what are their motivations we come to know too late.
Patent what?
ARe you fucking kidding me?
Get lost with that ridiculous thing!
Who are these corrupt patent givers?
You can’t patent the work of God, imbeciles!
If certain genes have been bred independently from big corpos, what right should corpos have to patent it?
Like for real, let’s say Monsanto developed with their high tech gene in wheat which makes it resistant to X disease. Independent seed breeder in France who had no access to Monsanto tech or Monsanto’s seeds, independently bred the same gene in their own wheat seeds. Why would independent seed breeder should be bothered to get approval from Monsanto that they could sell their own seeds.
If things are developed independently and they are patented, people who independently developed it still should be able to use their own developments without being hindered by big corpos, who will always will have lobbyists and armies of lawyers. It’s an unfair fight and therefore it must not be allowed.
Rarely do I see this level of misinformation. This article was writren by a half-wit who has absolutely no idea how intellectual property works on seeds.
Plant variety protection is basically a patent for plants, you just do not need to describe the invention itself, as before the genomic age breeders did not know what changed in the plant’s genome.
Plant variety protection has existed since 1930 and grants the same rights to breeders as a patent. So contrary to the article’s claims plant varieties have been “patented” for a hundred years now, there has not been a world where a farmer could freely re-plant seeds protectef as an IP.
“In order to develop his own virus-resistant tomato, Carree would need to read all patent applications to understand which traits the companies have filed a patent application for. The patent applications are written in such complicated language, however, that he sometimes struggles to understand them.”
Dude, blaming your own ineptitude on the “system” is the lowest you can get. If you do not understand patents, you might want to attend a university and learn genetics. Patenting in biotecnology means that even a single nucleotide difference can break a “patent”, a single point mutation means you have a new invention. These IP laws are extremely easy to circumwent, it is highly unlikely that independent breeders could get the same genes. And dude, you yourself said it that these patent applications have not been granted. That means you can do whatever you want no IP protection is present in the system. But I guess bitching about how you can not even understand patents to the press is easier than learning genetics, or actually breeding a plant.
Such patents just let them monopolize their seeds which needless to say is not a good thing for the economy and the food industry…
Great, as if food wasn’t expensive enough… now we’ll have to pay taxes AND a percentage to the asshole that owns the patent, you gotta love greedy corporations and how low they will go just to get more money.
you mean to tell me all that schizophrenic lobbying against GMOs a decade ago was for nothing? who would’ve thought? might as well throw those laws away now too
Become a member of seed sharing groups. It is important to keep heirloom varieties going. They are at risk from this law.
Anything that have to do with critical security such as general safety, medicine or food should be banned from being patented ever.
So much for the spirit of Jonas Salk who refused to patent his polio vaccine with the memorable quip “Could you patent the Sun?”
And this was a much, much bigger development than any seed stock. His vaccine, along with that of Albert Sabin’s, effectively ended polio as a serious disease.
15 comments
This is really bad. You shouldn’t be able to patent a living being.
>The little-known European Patent Office (EPO) grants those patents – an entity fully independent from Brussels and funded by corporate patent fees, whose decisions EU member states abide by.
This makes the EPO sound like some sort of shady corporate organisation. In reality, the EPO derives from and is bound to the European Patent Convention (EPC). Ultimately it is the member states who collectively decide on the European Patent Convention and with that on the duties and powers of the EPO.
The reason the EPO cannot be an EU institution is because the EPC has non-EU member states such as the UK, Turkey and Switzerland.
To clear some things up before people shoot from the hip in the comments:
– The period of protection of a European patent is 20 years (in some specific cases slightly longer).
– Plant or animal varieties are explicitly excluded from patentability. This does not apply to microbiological processes or the products thereof.
– A requirement for a valid patent is novelty, you cannot patent something which demonstrably already exists.
At this rate air will become a paid resource.
So the laws supposed to defend research and creativity do exactly the contrary, they protect only the big corps and their monopolies. So I say, fuck the patents on seeds.
Lmao, we’ll have to pay a subscription to plant some tomatoes
EPO does not fall within the EU????? What the hell? This constant obfuscation of who makes what decision is why everyone hates the EU… Someone somewhere is actively working to fuck up my future but who it is and what are their motivations we come to know too late.
Patent what?
ARe you fucking kidding me?
Get lost with that ridiculous thing!
Who are these corrupt patent givers?
You can’t patent the work of God, imbeciles!
If certain genes have been bred independently from big corpos, what right should corpos have to patent it?
Like for real, let’s say Monsanto developed with their high tech gene in wheat which makes it resistant to X disease. Independent seed breeder in France who had no access to Monsanto tech or Monsanto’s seeds, independently bred the same gene in their own wheat seeds. Why would independent seed breeder should be bothered to get approval from Monsanto that they could sell their own seeds.
If things are developed independently and they are patented, people who independently developed it still should be able to use their own developments without being hindered by big corpos, who will always will have lobbyists and armies of lawyers. It’s an unfair fight and therefore it must not be allowed.
Rarely do I see this level of misinformation. This article was writren by a half-wit who has absolutely no idea how intellectual property works on seeds.
Plant variety protection is basically a patent for plants, you just do not need to describe the invention itself, as before the genomic age breeders did not know what changed in the plant’s genome.
Plant variety protection has existed since 1930 and grants the same rights to breeders as a patent. So contrary to the article’s claims plant varieties have been “patented” for a hundred years now, there has not been a world where a farmer could freely re-plant seeds protectef as an IP.
“In order to develop his own virus-resistant tomato, Carree would need to read all patent applications to understand which traits the companies have filed a patent application for. The patent applications are written in such complicated language, however, that he sometimes struggles to understand them.”
Dude, blaming your own ineptitude on the “system” is the lowest you can get. If you do not understand patents, you might want to attend a university and learn genetics. Patenting in biotecnology means that even a single nucleotide difference can break a “patent”, a single point mutation means you have a new invention. These IP laws are extremely easy to circumwent, it is highly unlikely that independent breeders could get the same genes. And dude, you yourself said it that these patent applications have not been granted. That means you can do whatever you want no IP protection is present in the system. But I guess bitching about how you can not even understand patents to the press is easier than learning genetics, or actually breeding a plant.
Such patents just let them monopolize their seeds which needless to say is not a good thing for the economy and the food industry…
Great, as if food wasn’t expensive enough… now we’ll have to pay taxes AND a percentage to the asshole that owns the patent, you gotta love greedy corporations and how low they will go just to get more money.
you mean to tell me all that schizophrenic lobbying against GMOs a decade ago was for nothing? who would’ve thought? might as well throw those laws away now too
Become a member of seed sharing groups. It is important to keep heirloom varieties going. They are at risk from this law.
Anything that have to do with critical security such as general safety, medicine or food should be banned from being patented ever.
So much for the spirit of Jonas Salk who refused to patent his polio vaccine with the memorable quip “Could you patent the Sun?”
And this was a much, much bigger development than any seed stock. His vaccine, along with that of Albert Sabin’s, effectively ended polio as a serious disease.