May 2020 - Npos_2018 - lists.testbiotech.de

!!!!!!!!!the enlarged board says yes / please come back to me on the PR
by Christoph Then 14 May '20

14 May '20

after first quick reading: this is a yes. the only negative comment is that rules 28 (2) does not apply to patent applications before 1 July. I would ignore this passage. I once more attach my latest drafts, I will some minor changes and send it to English editing - maybe also this round can help with final English version. any changes to be made please within next two hours. Please those who want to take quotes as suggested, send contact details. Otherwise I will try to re-organise. let us try to publish before 4 pm.

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final draft media release and update on contact persons
by Christoph Then 14 May '20

14 May '20

Dear all please see latest draft, with some small change, marked in yellow. I already sent it off to final English editing. I can not get hold of Johanna and Ruth, Georg did not react so far. To be quick, I propose Martha taking first, Katherine second and me the third quote in both versions. If Bram has some idea hwo to include Oxfam, very welcome, we still could try to add. cheers Christoph

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update: Talks with German Minister and Media Release on EBoA (de und en)
by Christoph Then 13 May '20

13 May '20

Dear all yesterday, Annemarie, Georg and me had an interesting and very constructive meeting with the Minister of Justice in Berlin. It was organised by a Member of German Parliament. Please keep confidential. (1) There seems to a plan which is already discussed and even agreed (?) with all other governments how to react to the EBoA in case, if the answer is *NO*: They want first to go to the EU to re-open the Directive 98/44 to sort out this issue. Then they will take a decision in the Administrative Council to adopt the EPC (change it,not only the rules) accordingly (see Art 33 (1) b)). It seems this plan was discussed in the AC just in their meeting after the decision of the Board of Appeal in Dec 2018. We commented that this process suffers from major uncertainties and can be completely sacked by any parliament decision in any contraction state. In result, after two years or after a longer period of time, we would start from Zero. I mentioned that we discussed it with the president of the AC (Kratochvil) and discovered several weaknesses. The ministry answered that they think a conference of the contracting parties would also take a long time to prepare. We answered we are happy if they succeed, but we would be surprised if the EU could provide a solution and that we still recommend to call for a conference as soon as possible. I do not think they will follow us at this stage. so point (1) was not very successful. But at least there is no doubt that they will get active if the verdict of the EBoA will contradict the decision of the AC. It would be interesting to get some insight in plans from Austrian government (or others) on their strategy. (2) In case the EBoA says *YES*, they said, they think legal clarity is achieved. Random mutagenesis should then be sorted out by further decision making at the EPO. We mentioned the decision of the AC, based on the preparatory text of the EPO President, might prevent the EPO from taking the right decisions. We mentioned that, without further clarification, freedom to operate can not be reached for conventional breeding. we explained that random processes to increase genetic diversity, followed by crossing and selection are not inventive. We mentioned Carlsberg and examination reports from the EPO made after June 2017 and before Dec 2018. The round seemed to agree that random processes should be excluded. They seemed to agree that it should be tried to sort it out by legislation, not just by case law (as proposed). The ministry wants to check the possibility to first get clarification in national patent law. we were asked to present cases of patents granted or patents being under examination, to see how the decision of the AC was applied before Dec 2018. We answered to do so. so point (2) was more or less in agreement with our proposals (but with some legal expert of the ministry still trying to counteract) Follow up: the ministry will monitor the decision of the EBoA which they said it might come up in June (without any certainty). we will present a list of examination reports and granted patents which show how the EPO was dealing with the AC decision before Dec 2018. I will discuss with Ruth. we will keep in constructive dialogue with the ministry. Let me know if there are any questions/ comments. We also might discuss on our next phone conference. please see attached the revised version of the PR (in en and de) for the case the EBoA says YES, I am still working on the other one. so lets keep pushing, it might get pretty exciting again ... Christoph

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update: Talks with German Minister and Media Release on EBoA (de und en)
by Christoph Then 13 May '20

13 May '20

Dear all yesterday, Annemarie, Georg and me had an interesting and very constructive meeting with the Minister of Justice in Berlin. It was organised by a Member of German Parliament. Please keep confidential. (1) There seems to a plan which is already discussed and even agreed (?) with all other governments how to react to the EBoA in case, if the answer is *NO*: They want first to go to the EU to re-open the Directive 98/44 to sort out this issue. Then they will take a decision in the Administrative Council to adopt the EPC (change it,not only the rules) accordingly (see Art 33 (1) b)). It seems this plan was discussed in the AC just in their meeting after the decision of the Board of Appeal in Dec 2018. We commented that this process suffers from major uncertainties and can be completely sacked by any parliament decision in any contraction state. In result, after two years or after a longer period of time, we would start from Zero. I mentioned that we discussed it with the president of the AC (Kratochvil) and discovered several weaknesses. The ministry answered that they think a conference of the contracting parties would also take a long time to prepare. We answered we are happy if they succeed, but we would be surprised if the EU could provide a solution and that we still recommend to call for a conference as soon as possible. I do not think they will follow us at this stage. so point (1) was not very successful. But at least there is no doubt that they will get active if the verdict of the EBoA will contradict the decision of the AC. It would be interesting to get some insight in plans from Austrian government (or others) on their strategy. (2) In case the EBoA says *YES*, they said, they think legal clarity is achieved. Random mutagenesis should then be sorted out by further decision making at the EPO. We mentioned the decision of the AC, based on the preparatory text of the EPO President, might prevent the EPO from taking the right decisions. We mentioned that, without further clarification, freedom to operate can not be reached for conventional breeding. we explained that random processes to increase genetic diversity, followed by crossing and selection are not inventive. We mentioned Carlsberg and examination reports from the EPO made after June 2017 and before Dec 2018. The round seemed to agree that random processes should be excluded. They seemed to agree that it should be tried to sort it out by legislation, not just by case law (as proposed). The ministry wants to check the possibility to first get clarification in national patent law. we were asked to present cases of patents granted or patents being under examination, to see how the decision of the AC was applied before Dec 2018. We answered to do so. so point (2) was more or less in agreement with our proposals (but with some legal expert of the ministry still trying to counteract) Follow up: the ministry will monitor the decision of the EBoA which they said it might come up in June (without any certainty). we will present a list of examination reports and granted patents which show how the EPO was dealing with the AC decision before Dec 2018. I will discuss with Ruth. we will keep in constructive dialogue with the ministry. Let me know if there are any questions/ comments. We also might discuss on our next phone conference. please see attached the revised version of the PR (in en and de) for the case the EBoA says YES, I am still working on the other one. so lets keep pushing, it might get pretty exciting again ... Christoph

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Application for membership
by Johanna Eckhardt no-patents-seeds.org 13 May '20

13 May '20

Dear all, following Christophs email, here are some infos on the application process for membership for No patents on seeds! as established in our Statute and Rules of Procedure: - an application has to be supported by two members of the organization (we havent established a formal process for that) - Johanna/Christoph sends application form to new organization - application form is checked by board in regards to formalities - application is put to vote by the members either via email or at the Meeting of Members. Applications have to be accepted by a two-thirds majority. This process applies both for our current members wanting to become members as organizations (not private persons), that is ARCHE NOAH, SWISSAID and ProSpecieRara as well as for the Danish Seed Savers. All 4 application forms have been sent to the Board who will continue the process asap. Please find below the relevant texts from our Statute and Rules of Procedure. Best, Johanna Statute § 3 Nr. 2 Applicants for membership must submit a written application, which will be forwarded to the members after a formal inspection. The application must be supported by two members of the Organization. The admission is approved by a two-thirds majority vote by the members. § 3 Nr. 3 In addition to § 3 Nr. 2, the admission of a new member can be approved by electronic means in between general meetings. Members will be informed about applications and the quorum. Members will then submit their decision to the Management Board within four weeks. The admission is approved by a two-thirds majority vote by the members. Otherwise, the provisions of section 3 apply. Rules of Procedure: Potential members must complete the form Application for Membership in the organization No Patents on Seeds!. The form will be provided by the organization upon request.

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workflow, updates etc, doodle for phone conference, new organsiations
by Christoph Then 11 May '20

11 May '20

Dear all just some short update on current activities beyond the planned media work: I will try to meet our ministry of Justice tomorrow. Georg and Annemarie from AbL will also take part. We will try to get some impression what they think about the process in general and will inform you. This also might cause further changes in our draft media release. After the meeting I also will come back to draft letters to the Members of the Admin Council (also asking for further meetings). I still have to write letters to some of your organisations regarding funding for 2020. However, before doing so, I wanted to get the final version of the account overview from Gen-ethical Network for first half of the year 2019, which will be sent along with the letter. I will remind them again that they promised to send. By the way: I welcome Gudula from the Gen ethical network as introduced by Judith just recently. I will add her to the mailing list. We still have to manage some technicalities around the changes in the statutes, but I would like to wait till we have a full list of members of the Board. Ruth and Katherine are working on it. Thanks!! Johanna asked about interest in having a phone conference (or zoom conference) in May or June... I think this would be a good idea. Cheers Christoph PS regarding the issue of some organisations want to become member as juridical bodies, I handed over to Johanna and the Board. I guess they will inform Arche Noah and SWISSAID and ProSpecie (any other?) that this process is finalised. However, this does not mean that any new organisations will become members. We now have a request from Danish Seed Savers to become a member (thanks a lot to Erling!). I guess this process will follow the statutes and internal rules for procedure. I asked Johanna to provide us with a check-list.

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first draft PRs on the decision of the Enlarged Board od Appeal
by Christoph Then 11 May '20

11 May '20

der all, please see first drafts in En. I think we can use the same examples for patent applications in both cases (Yes and No), while the content of the PR has to adapted to the decision in many other details. please send your comment till Thursday. thanks! Christoph

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parental leave representative to mailinglist
by judith.dueesberg＠gen-ethisches-netzwerk.de 05 May '20

05 May '20

Dear people, I would like to ask you to add my parental leave representative Gudula Madsen with her e-mail (gudula.madsen(a)gen-ethisches-netzwerk.de) address to the NPOS mailing list. To avoid receiving my absence note every week, it would be helpful to take my address off the mailing list until I start working at GeN again in May 2021. Kind regards and successful work Judith Düesberg -- Judith Düesberg Gen-ethisches Netzwerk (GeN) Stephanstraße 13, 10559 Berlin 030 - 685 70 73 www.gen-ethisches-netzwerk.de Twitter: @GeNetzwerk Aktueller GID zum Thema: +++ Gesundheit in der Krise – Aktuelle Herausforderungen im Gesundheitssystem+++

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problems with mailing list is fixed
by Christoph Then 04 May '20

04 May '20

Now Fulya is on board.

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