Broccoli patent wars
A British company is in court in Germany this week in what German media described as a bid to patent broccoli.
Plant Biosciences Ltd filed a patent in 2002 for what it described as a method of selectively increasing the level of a potentially anti-carcinogenic substance in broccoli. But the patent was challenged by a Swiss company that said the patent being requested was essentially a natural process – and therefore impossible to patent.
Opposition to the British firms patents has also been raised by German Agriculture Minister Ilse Aigner who has has registered an objection with the European Patent Office (EPA) – saying you “can’t patent Creation.” Aigner said that while patents are important for the protection of intellectual property, the EPA should limit the range of patent protection for agricultural products. She added that there was a clear difference between discoveries and inventions and added: “We can’t treat new cases for plants and animals like other technical cases, creation belongs to all humanity.”
