European Patent Office lets EU decisions to come to nothing
EPO practice of allowing patents on plants is becoming increasingly brazen
14 January 2026 / Recent decisions by the European Patent Office (EPO) show that existing bans on the patenting of seeds are insufficient to stop the monopolisation of natural genetic resources. Despite the ban on patenting plants obtained from “essentially biological processes” (also known as Rule 28(2) of the European Patent Convention), naturally occurring plant genes continue to be patented as inventions. As a result, plants bred on the basis of these genes also fall within the scope of the patents.
