Fee related amendments before the EPO and decision of EU Commission on full ban on patents for NGT plants
The EU Parliament approved the EU Commission’s proposals for new rules on plants obtained through ‚New Genomic Techniques‘ (NGTs) on February 7, 2024. The key aspects of the proposals can be summarized as follows: Accordingly, it is proposed to introduce two Articles (Article 4a and Art 33a) into Biotech Patent Directive 98/44/EC and the EU will start negotiations with the member states on the final law. However, it should be noted that the proposed amendments are not yet harmonized with the European Patent Convention. In more detail, according to the established case law of the Boards of Appeal (see for example the decision G 3/19 (“Pepper”)) the term „plant varieties […]
