Dear all,
I received the question about the points we would like to discuss. I would like toe answer tomorrow before around noon. see below my draft mail, following the ideas from last year.
on the participants: Ruth, Katherine, Erling, Martha, Bram, Francois, Matthias, Johanna & me.
did I miss anybody?
thanks for yor reaction!
Christoph
Dear Jean Luc,
thank you very much for coming back to us!
we suggest the following topics:
(1) follow up on the points raised in our first meeting (by also taking into account the new version of the Guidelines for Examination):
can patents on random mutagenesis be excluded under current patent law or would it need a change of the EPC?
which implications may patents on cells derived from plants and animals (derived from essentially biological methods) have?
how can the scope of patents be limited? Would it be possible to end up absolute product protection for patents being granted under Art 53 b? Would it need a change of the EPC?
(2) Decision making
can we expect decisions to be taken by the Administrative Council in first half of 2021 to sort our the contradictions between G1/08, G2/07 and the documents CA/PL 4/17, CA/56/17 and CA/PL 4/20 in regard to the definition of essentially biological processes?
if not, can we expect the President of EPO to announce a further staying?
if the open questions in regard to the definition of essentially biological cases are left to case law of the EPO, how much time would it might take to come to legal certainty?
(3) are there any plans to enable participation of civil society in future meetings of the Administrative Council?
(4) some outline of a potential further process for ongoing exchange of arguments between the EPO and No Patents on Seeds!.
We also considered the duration of the meeting and suggest to extend it up to two hours.
During next week, we will come back with a list of participants
have a nice weekend!
Christoph Then