In a joint position paper, the German organic producer, Bioland, together with a group of organizations, is calling for significant restrictions regarding patents on seeds.
As stated in the position paper, the signatories are calling for patents on plants obtained from conventional breeding (random mutagenesis) to be prohibited, as well as on plants obtained from new genetic engineering (NGTs) if their characteristics also occur in nature. In addition, they propose a general exclusion from patent law for breeding (breeders’ exemption), which would also apply if further patents are granted.
The joint position paper will shortly be introduced into ongoing EU negotiations on the future regulation of plants obtained from new genetic engineering (NGTs). It will essentially strengthen the position of the EU Parliament, which has already adopted similar positions.
No Patents on Seeds! supports the core demands of the position paper, but is not a signatory while arguing for further clarifications. However, the international alliance hopes that the position paper will help to ensure that patents on traditionally-bred plants will be banned without exception. Free access to naturally occurring diversity, which is also found in conventionally-bred varieties, is absolutely essential, especially in traditional breeding.
The text of the paper (originally in German):
Restriction of Biopatents for Breeding and Agriculture Urgently Needed
Preamble
In the future, a resilient, sustainable, and productive food system is essential in order to meet the challenges of climate change and ensure sufficient food production over the long term. Diversity is a fundamental prerequisite for this – diversity in seeds and planting material, unrestricted access to them, and diversity in farming operations and plant breeding enterprises.
To promote productive, sustainable, and resilient agricultural and food systems, the breeding of location- and climate-adapted, high-yielding, and robust plant varieties is of vital importance (excerpt from The Future of Agriculture – A Societal Responsibility in Challenging Times: Strategic Guidelines and Recommendations of the Future Commission for Agriculture, November 2024). Healthy, high-quality, and diverse seed and planting material of location-adapted varieties of many species is – along with soil and water – the foundational resource for all crop and horticultural production.
Intellectual Property Protection in Plant Breeding
Developing a new variety typically takes ten to fifteen years. To incentivize breeders to invest in such a long innovation cycle, effective intellectual property protection for newly created varieties is required.
This protection drives investment in the breeding of new varieties. At the same time, unrestricted access to and exchange of genetic diversity must be guaranteed, as it is essential for every breeder to develop new and innovative varieties. Plant variety protection (PVP) effectively combines both aspects as a system of protection and ensures them in practice. However, the increasing number of patents in plant breeding threatens this system. Therefore, plant variety protection must be strengthened as the primary system over patent protection.
Plant breeding is based on the continual creation of new combinations of genetic building blocks to combine the best traits of plants and develop improved new varieties. This recombination of natural traits is achieved through the crossing of two plants. Under plant variety protection law, breeders can freely use varieties from other breeders for their own breeding purposes, including marketing the newly developed variety. Compared to patent law, plant variety protection acts as an “open-source system” and provides the foundation for continuous breeding progress that builds on the work of others.
Technical inventions in plant breeding are not covered by plant variety protection and thus fall under patent law. As a result, plant varieties containing patented traits may not be marketed without the consent of the patent holder. In practice, this is proving to be an increasing barrier to innovation.
Current Developments
In recent years, the number of patents in plant breeding has risen – for example, due to new genome sequencing and genome editing techniques (new genomic techniques, NGTs). Even plants derived from random mutagenesis continue to be patentable. This increasing patenting of methods and the resulting plant traits restricts free access to genetic material. The “open-source system” of plant variety protection is being undermined and risks collapsing. Small and medium-sized plant breeding companies (SMEs) are especially affected, as even conducting research on possible patent conflicts (“Freedom to Operate”, FTO) is very complex and costly. Yet, it is essential to support SMEs to preserve the diversity of breeding companies and, consequently, the diversity of varieties across a wide range of crops.
The EU and the European Patent Office (EPO) have taken an initial step by banning the patenting of essentially biological processes and plants (especially crossing and selection) derived from them, thus helping to restore essential access to genetic diversity for plant breeding. However, this step alone is not sufficient to prevent the erosion of plant variety protection by patents.
Demands to Policymakers
To ensure that a wide range of crop varieties remains available for a future-proof agriculture that addresses both ecological and economic challenges, unrestricted access to biological material for plant breeding must be guaranteed. This can only be achieved through plant variety protection if the system is not undermined by patent law.
It is essential to comprehensively restrict the patenting of biological material used in plant breeding that occurs naturally, could occur naturally, or arose by chance. This material must remain freely available for the breeding and marketing of new varieties and for the entire value chain.
A key element of this demand – the exclusion from patenting of products of random mutagenesis – is already implemented in Austrian patent law and must now be enacted across the EU.
Regardless of this, the patentability – or at least the enforceability – of patents on all the above-described biological materials used in plant breeding must be legally restricted across the EU. This includes, in addition to products of random mutagenesis, products of genome editing techniques and marker-assisted selection.
A potential solution is the implementation of a “full breeder’s exemption” into the EU Biotech Directive 98/44, as proposed in the White Paper by Prof. Metzger, Prof. Zech, and Dr. Kock.
It must also be ensured that all of these demands are legally secured within the European Patent Convention (EPC) and the Unified Patent Court (UPC) so that access to biological material remains fully available for the breeding and marketing of new varieties.
Berlin, June 13, 2025
- German Association of Dairy Farmers (Bundesverband Deutscher Milchviehhalter e.V.)
- German Plant Breeders’ Association (Bundesverband Deutscher Pflanzenzüchter e.V.)
- Bioland Association (Bioland e.V.)
- Federation of Organic Food Producers (Bund Ökologische Lebensmittelwirtschaft e.V.)
- German Farmers’ Association (Deutscher Bauernverband)
- Protestant Church in Germany (Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland)
- Catholic Rural People’s Movement of Germany (Katholische Landvolkbewegung Deutschlands)
- Catholic Rural Youth Movement (Katholische Landjugendbewegung)
