Patentability of plants under the EPC: back to square one?
Author: Mike SnodinCIPA Journal (March 2019)
This article, which was first published in the March 2019 edition of the CIPA Journal, discusses a decision by an EPO Board of Appeal that found a rule of the European Patent Convention (Rule 28(2) EPC) to be unenforceable, on the grounds that it conflicts with an Article of the Convention (Article 53(b) EPC), as previously interpreted by the Enlarged Board of Appeal. The article also discusses (the lawfulness of) various options for addressing the tension between politics and that law that will now resurface in connection with the patenting of plants deriving from conventional breeding methods. Back To List