Dear all
I finished my analysis of patents granted and filed in 2023.
besides those cases we already published (tomatoes, lettuce) I now identified more than a dozen patent applications based on random mutagenesis. In several cases, the plants existed before, but were 're-invented'.
these patents could be granted by the EPO, following its recent practice on Rule 28 (2). The companies include BASF, KWS, Syngenta, Pioneer, Carlsberg and some usual suspects from the Netherlands.
we could produce a short backgrounder on these cases, with some legal background (including current practice of the EPO) and hand it over to the Commission, maybe end of June and and could also approach the EU Parliament and the Administrative council.
please let me know if your are interested. I could send a first draft (including tabled overview on the cases) next week.
The full report is still planned to be published in September.
Cheers
Christoph