Giant tomato at European Patent Office

8 November 2011 / Activity against the patent on wrinkled tomatos in front of the European Patent Office (EPO) in Munich. Occasion is the hearing of the opposition against the patent before the EPO's Technical Board of Appeal. In this hearing, the contradictions of patenting products from conventional breeding processes, which are non-patentable, become apparent. In December 2010, the Enlarged Board of Appeal of the EPO stated in a leading decision that traditional breeding techniques are not patentable. However, there was no prohibition of patents on products that were made using these techniques. Such a prohibition only can be made by a decision of the Enlarged Board of Appeal. The opposition against the patent is passed on to the Enlarged Board of Appeal.

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