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Christoph Then
Director - Greenpeace, Hamburg
Greenpeace is fighting against patents on life forms such as plants,
animals, parts of human body and gene sequences. The organisation
especially supports the global appeal against patents on seeds and farm
animals which was started in March 2007 (www.no-patents-on-seeds.org).
The text of the appeal should be seen as the most relevant contribution
of Greenpeace to the European Patents Forum 2007:
Keep out patents on conventional seeds and animals
For several years, patents on genetically modified seeds and animals
have been granted worldwide. The damaging impacts on farmers, who are
deprived of their rights to save their seeds, and on breeders who can
no longer use the patented seeds freely for further breeding, are well
known. In Canada and the US, for example, the multinational seed
company Monsanto has sued many farmers for alleged patent infringements.
1
The same company has also filed court cases against importers of Argentinean soy to Europe.
2
Furthermore, the possibility of patenting seeds has fostered a highly
concentrated market structure with only 10 multinational companies
controlling about half of the international seed market. Many farmers
organisations and NGOs around the world are fighting against these
patents. Because genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are still not
grown in most countries, or only used in a small number of crops, the
negative impacts of these patents are not being felt everywhere.
However, there is an alarming new trend for patents not only to be
claimed on GMOs (such as Round-up ready soybeans), but also on
conventional plants. For example, patent claims have been made for soy
beans with a better oil quality
3
covering large parts of the plant genome when used in conventional
breeding and technologies to improve conventional breeding (such as
marker assisted breeding). Some of the most threatening examples in
this context are patent applications from Syngenta which claim huge
parts of the rice genome
4
and its use in breeding of any
food crops that have similar genomic information to rice (such as maize
and wheat). The European Patent Office has also granted a patent on
aphid resistant composite plants which is based on marker assisted
breeding
5
. Other recent patent applications by Monsanto on pigs are also related to normal breeding methods
6
, indicating the increasing danger of agricultural genetic resources
becoming monopolised by a few multinationals on a global scale.
Soon the Enlarged Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office will
decide on another patent of this kind – for a method of increasing a
specific compound in Brassica species
7
.
This decision will determine the patentability of conventional seeds in
Europe. Whereas patents on conventional plant varieties are normal
practice in the US, many other countries, especially developing
countries, do not grant patents on plants or animals. But as the recent
history shows, the standards defined and used at the European, Japanese
and US patent offices influence international regulations (the WTO
agreement on trade related aspects of intellectual property rights,
TRIPS, and the World Intellectual Property Organisation, WIPO). Patent
offices all over the world are pushed to adapt their regulations and
practices either through the international regulations or by bilateral
agreements. India, for example, has just passed a third patent
amendment in order to adapt its law to the TRIPS regulations.
This frightening new trend in patent policy will affect many more
farmers and breeders, than has been the case with GMO patents. Any
remaining farmers rights and breeders’ access to plant varieties and
animal breeds for breeding purposes, will disappear everywhere. These
patents will destroy a system of farmers’ rights and breeders’
privileges that has been shown to be crucial for the survival of
farmers and breeders, for food sovereignty, and for the preservation of
biodiversity in agriculture. The vast majority of farmers in developing
countries are small-scale farmers, completely reliant on saving and
exchanging their seeds.
In order to secure the continued existence of independent farming,
breeding and livestock keeping and hence the food security of future
generations, we, the undersigned farmers, researchers, breeders and
civil society organisations from all over the world, restate our
rejection of any patents on life, and urge policy makers and patent
offices to act swiftly to stop any patents being granted on
conventionally bred plants and animals and on gene sequences for use
with conventional breeding technique. We also urge companies not to
apply for any patents of this kind.
Footnotes
1. http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/Monsantovsusfarmersreport.cfm
2. Since January 2006 several Argentinean soybean exports have been detained in European ports due to lawsuits filed by Monsanto against soy producers for not having paid patent royalties to Monsanto, claiming that they hold a patent on RR soy in Europe.
3. WO 2004/006659; Monsanto claims soy with a better oil quality, derived from conventional breeding
4. WO 03/027249, resp. EP 1576163
5. EP 921720; company Rijk Zwaan
6. WO 2005/017204, WO 2005/015989 and WO 2005/078133
7. EP 1 069 819