Dear all
we just had an open minded exchange with the German plant breeders organisation. As you know, they demand that biological resources that can occur in nature should not be patented. This also includes plants which are derived from New GE but inherit natural occurring gene variants.
They said that the big companies Bayer, BASF, Corteva and Syngenta are not supporting this demand (please for the moment keep this as internal information) and that it took them a lot of energy to get a majority for their position.
They were very interested in the Austrian law which they consider to be a success. They were very interested in getting our arguments in regard to 'interpretation' of patent law in comparison to 'changing the the law'. They will consider internally if they will demand a fast track push for conventional breeding, but they also may keep it as it is, as a package. In any case, there might be some synergies.
They also clearly stated that they do not see licencing platform a 'the' solution.
We may have further exchange with them in around two months.
all in all, we gain support for our demands. But they might also be further complications due to the New GE debates.
Katherine and Annemarie also took part in the talk, please add what I forgot to mention or clarify your observations.
Christoph