20 July 2010 / The Enlarged Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office holds a meeting on the patent cases on broccoli and tomatoes in Munich. A large demonstation in front of the Office demand the Board to finally take serious the European Patent Convention. In article 53, this convention explicitly states that "plant or animal varieties or essentially biological processes for the production of plants or animals" are excluded from patentability.
The Enlarged Board of Appeal comes to the conclusion that conventional breeding processes can not be patented. However, it makes no statement on the "products" of such breeding. The European Patent Office continues to grant patents on the "products" of essentially biological breeding processes.