Monsanto has been awarded a European patent on conventionally bred melons (EP 1 962 578). This type of Melon had been bred for increased resistance to certain plant viruses. Indian melons which display greater disease resistance were simply crossed with other varieties in order to transfer this characteristic. The process and outcome is now a legal invention.
In December 2010,The European Patent Office (EPO) decided that conventional breeding could not be patented (G2/07 and G1/08). To evade the issue, Monsanto obtained a patent on the entire plant, seeds, and fruit. Since Monsanto now owns the patent on the plant itself, it now controls the conventional breeding process of the plant. The disease the melon is resistant to has been spreading across North America, Europe and North Africa for several years. Monsanto can now decide on the future of the plant and the livelihoods of those who grow it. Insert your anti-capitalist, pro-commons expletives here.
Christoph Then, a spokesperson for No Patents on Seeds comments:
“This patent is an abuse of patent law because it is not a real invention. It contravenes European law excluding patents on conventional breeding. Further, it is a case of bio-piracy, since the original and most relevant plants come from India...Patents like this are blocking access to the genetic resources necessary for further breeding, and basic resources needed for daily life are subordinated to monopolisation and financial speculation.”
The coalition No Patents on Seeds! are calling for a revision of European Patent Law to exclude breeding material, plants and animals and food derived thereof from patentability:
The patent
The call
In December 2010,The European Patent Office (EPO) decided that conventional breeding could not be patented (G2/07 and G1/08). To evade the issue, Monsanto obtained a patent on the entire plant, seeds, and fruit. Since Monsanto now owns the patent on the plant itself, it now controls the conventional breeding process of the plant. The disease the melon is resistant to has been spreading across North America, Europe and North Africa for several years. Monsanto can now decide on the future of the plant and the livelihoods of those who grow it. Insert your anti-capitalist, pro-commons expletives here.
Christoph Then, a spokesperson for No Patents on Seeds comments:
“This patent is an abuse of patent law because it is not a real invention. It contravenes European law excluding patents on conventional breeding. Further, it is a case of bio-piracy, since the original and most relevant plants come from India...Patents like this are blocking access to the genetic resources necessary for further breeding, and basic resources needed for daily life are subordinated to monopolisation and financial speculation.”
The coalition No Patents on Seeds! are calling for a revision of European Patent Law to exclude breeding material, plants and animals and food derived thereof from patentability:
The patent
The call
