Monsanto’s fraudulent tomato patent revoked by patent office

Natural News – by Jennifer Lilley

In an effort to help consumers make smart food decisions and not be strong armed into choosing edibles produced by a select few shady mega-corporations like Monsanto, No Patents on Seeds! has made significant strides. The coalition made tremendous headway when they, along with Nunhems/Bayer CropScience, filed petitions against Monsanto regarding the GMO giant’s tomato patent. Ultimately, Monsanto’s patent was revoked by the European Patent Office (EPO) — not because the EPO initiated it, but because they agreed to Monsanto’s request to do so.⁽¹⁾

The reason for the patent not going through is, unfortunately, not much of a surprise.

As Natural News readers know, there are many documents riddled with loopholes and laws that squeak by based on cleverly crafted words. The situation was no different in this case; it was ultimately determined that Monsanto was attempting to be wise wordsmiths, saying that their patent focused on conventionally bred tomatoes that had a natural resistance to botrytis, a fungal disease, and should therefore be considered as an intervention. However, the tomatoes for the patent were accessed from an area in Germany that already had the resistance to begin with; Monsanto was attempting to pull the wool over people’s eyes by indicating that their techniques were unique and, therefore, patent-worthy.⁽¹⁾

Monsanto’s patent attempt “abuse of patent law and biopiracy”

“Revoking this patent is an important success,” said Christopher Then, a coordinator with No Patents on Seeds! “It was more or less based on a combination of fraud, abuse of patent law and biopiracy. The patent could have been used to monopolise important genetic resources. Now breeders, growers and consumers have a chance of benefiting from a greater diversity of tomatoes improved by further breeding.” He explained, “The intended resistance is based on complex genetic conditions, which are not known in detail. So genetic engineering is clearly not an option in this case.”⁽¹⁾

No Patents on Seeds! hopes that this success spurs many others. In particular, they’re eyeing the EPO for their slew of patent-granting practices that includes genetically engineered plants, many of which are owned by Monsanto. Considering that Monsanto already controls approximately 25 percent of the international seed market, No Patents on Seeds! is striving to prevent them from expanding their market domination so that consumers have a range of food choices, and healthier ones at that. Specifically, they’re asking that the European government put more pressure on the EPO so that fair and accurate patent interpretation is practiced going forward. Furthermore, they would like to see revisions in European Patent Law so that breeding material, plants, animals and food derived from them are excluded from patentability.⁽¹⁾

Of the need to address these patent practices, the No Patents on Seeds! website asks, “Is the patent industry taking control of our food?” The related article further questions the future of food, honing in on the full patent opposition report regarding Monsanto’s tomato patent. “Will our daily food soon be controlled by big corporations and the patent industry, or will our politicians make decisions to ensure that patents on plants and animals are prohibited?”⁽²⁾

Dire need to address plant and seed patents as “we are at a critical stage”

The brief article precedes a PDF of the full patent opposition report, a report which includes highly scientific details pertaining mostly to molecular markers and botrytis. A portion of it states the following:

Thus far… breeding programs aimed at providing resistance to Botrytis in tomato have had limited success. The reasons for these poor results is at present not clear. For one part, this may be due to insufficient knowledge on the genetic basis and inheritance of Botrytis-resistance. For another part, this may be due to the lace of proper bioassays for assessing Botrytis-resistance levels in tomato plants obtained in breeding programs. The lack of knowledge and methods also complicates the selection of plants among both wild accessions and offspring plants that compromise genes involved in resistance to Botrytis.⁽³⁾

“We are at a critical stage,” the preceding article notes of the alarming amount of plant and seed patents either approved by, or slated to be approved by, the EPO. “The scope of many of the patents that have been granted is extremely broad and very often covers the whole food chain from production to consumption. These patents are an abuse of patent law, designed to take control of the resources needed for our daily living.”⁽²⁾

Sources:

(1) http://www.no-patents-on-seeds.org

(2) http://www.no-patents-on-seeds.org

(3) http://www.no-patents-on-seeds.org^[PDF]

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