Brussels, 10/05/2012 (Agence Europe) - The Parliament wants to protect European breeders from excessive patent protection, which it believes could stifle innovation and progress. In a resolution adopted on Thursday 10 May (354 votes for, 192 against, with 22 abstentions), the EP affirms that products such as anti-carcinogenic broccoli or high-yield dairy cows, produced by conventional breeding techniques, should not be patented. MEPs recognise that patents are an important tool for the transfer of technology but stress that “excessively broad patent protection can hamper innovation and progress and become detrimental to small and medium breeders by blocking access to animal and plant genetic resources”.
The Parliament calls on the European Patent Office (EPO) to exclude products derived from conventional breeding and all conventional breeding methods from patenting. It also wants the Commission and the member states to ensure that the EU continues to exempt breeders from its patent law on plant and animal breeding. (LC/transl.fl)