The future of plant breeding in Europe is under threat

So says No Patents on Seeds!, which is concerned about the growing number of traditional breeding patents and their impact on farmers, breeders, innovation and biodiversity. Organization "No Patents on Seeds!", which translates as "No to patents for seeds!" and reflects the essence of the work of a public association, recently published a report on a specific situation in the field of European seed production: “There is currently a disturbing trend in the spread of patents for traditional breeding: in Europe, 100 new patent applications for traditional plant breeding have been filed annually over the past ten years. In total, more than 1,500 patent applications have been filed, and about 700 are currently pending. Over 300 patents have already been issued, despite the fact that patents for "substantially biological" breeding of plants and animals are prohibited by European patent law. Such patents are often an abuse of patent law, since they are mainly based on trivial technical ...