Breeders should have free access to biological material in order to breed new varieties. Patent law does therefore not apply to traditional breeding processes. The European member states confirmed this unanimously at the Competitiveness Council in Brussels.
The member states indicated that when the directive regarding biotechnological inventions (which deals with the legal protection of such inventions) was introduced, it was never the idea to patent products resulting from an essentially biological process.
“This is an important breakthrough in the discussion about patent law for plant breeders. If they can have free access to biological material, that will lead to more innovation in the breeding sector, which is positive for Holland’s competitiveness and ultimately also for global food security”, said State Secretary Van Dam.
The problem with the existing patent law was that plant breeders weren’t allowed to use protected material for developing and marketing new varieties, without permission from the patent holder. The use of patents limits the availability of genetic diversity, which gets in the way of innovations in the plant breeding sector. This situation is undesirable, as plant breeders play an important role in the world food supply. They develop new varieties that can grow under the most extreme conditions and that are drought and disease resistant.
