Let’s Liberate Diversity! News
Patent-free zone for classical plant breeding in Europe!
New report by No Patents on Seeds!
No Patents on Seeds! published a report on recently filed or granted European patents on classical plant breeding.
One example is a patent on breeding of a native trait in tomatoes, just based on crossing and selection (EP3911147), which we wrote about earlier.
Against this backdrop, No Patents on Seeds! is presenting a new proposal to clarify the provisions of the European patent law to prevent such patents from being granted in future and would only need some minor changes to be added to the current legal provisions. The proposal is in accordance with current patent laws and would only change their interpretation.
“Our proposal follows the logic and the intention of the EU patent law to define certain criteria for technical inventions that can be patentable. At the same time, all other methods for breeding would remain non-patentable as originally intended by the legislator”, says Christoph Then of No Patents on Seeds!. “We expect the EU now to come up with viable solutions for safeguarding the future of plant breeding”.
As explained in the report, the proposal could help to solve several problems such as safeguarding access to biological material needed by all breeders. It addresses the root cause of the problem instead of only mitigating negative effects created by patents on seeds. In consequence, even patents already granted in the field of classical breeding or on native traits could no longer be enforced in the European Courts.
Link to the original post and report here: https://www.no-patents-on-seeds.org/en/report-2025
Further information
- Find the report here: https://www.no-patents-on-seeds.org/en/report-2025
- More info about patents on tomatoes (TBRF-Virus): https://www.no-patents-on-seeds.org/en/jordan_virus
You can share the press release and report on Facebook and X or share the direct link to this press release: https://www.no-patents-on-seeds.org/en/pr-report-2025
Scandalous patent granted on tomatoes
Dutch company given patent on GMO tomato
Patent EP3911147 held by the Dutch company, Enza Zaden, claims genes conferring resistance to the Tomato Brown Rugose Fruit Virus (ToBRFV). This virus poses a major threat to tomato cultivation. The claimed genes were discovered in a wild tomato species (Solanum habrochaites) that originates from Peru and Ecuador, and is considered one of the most important resources for genetic diversity in tomato breeding. The patent was granted by the European Patent Office (EPO) in July 2025.
The virus-resistant plants were crossed with tomatoes currently marketed in Europe (Solanum lycopersicum), thereby transferring the resistance. The European Patent Convention (EPC) prohibits patents on processes and products derived from crossing and selection. Nevertheless, this patent claims all breeding with the resistance genes for traditional breeding. If such patents are granted, natural genetic resources detected in wild or cultivated plants could be reclassified as technical inventions, thus making freedom to operate in traditional breeding impossible.
“The increasing threat of monopolization similarly affects gene banks and old regional varieties as well as currently marketed varieties on the market. These can be screened for naturally occurring genes whose further use may be blocked by a patent or be made subject to licensing agreements.” says Dagmar Urban for ARCHE NOAH.
Europe only allows genetically engineered plants to be patented. European legislators have enacted several legal provisions to prevent conventional plant breeding from being patented, most recently Rule 28(2) for the interpretation of the EPC. However, patent practices at the EPO undermine these provisions.
“This case is an alarming sign that the EPO is violating the intention of the legislator to prevent patents on plants and plant material used in conventional breeding. Furthermore, the patent shows that company activities also include biopiracy.” Johanna Eckhardt says for No Patents on Seeds!.
Resisting patents on traditional breeding and crossing
Against this backdrop, No Patents on Seeds! recommends that the EU launch an initiative to definitively clarify the limits of patentability in law. This could be decided within the framework and context of the current negotiations on new genomic technologies (NGTs).
No Patents on Seeds! recently joined with other organizations and breeding companies to file an opposition to another patent on tomatoes (EP 3629711). Legally, however, the new patent described above must be assessed differently. The older patent was already filed before Rule 28(2) officially came into force. The Enza Zaden patent is the first to be filed and granted after Rule 28(2) came into force claiming natural genes for crossing and selection.
Further information
– Tomato patents (ToBRF-Virus): https://www.no-patents-on-seeds.org/en/jordan_virus
– The Enza Zaden patent on the homepage of the EPO:
https://register.epo.org/application?number=EP19880924
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Farmer-Managed Seed Systems in Tanzania: Workshop report
Tanzania Alliance for Biodiversity and SWISSAID deliver workshop
From the 28th to the 30th of August 2025, Tanzania Alliance for Biodiversity organised the workshop “Creating Space for Farmers’ Seeds in Seed Regulations – Capitalizing International Learnings and Identifying Options for Tanzania”. The workshop was attended by 55 participants including Tanzanian Ministry of Agriculture, Members of
Tanzanian Parliament, regional and continental experts, civil society organizations, researchers, and farmer
representatives from 10 African and European countries.
The workshop was very successful, enabling participants to propose a number of options for Farmer-Managed Seed Systems within the legal framework in Tanzania and beyond. It was also an opportunity to unpack the EAC Seed and Plant Variety Bill and to call upon EALA to consider farmers’ rights in the Bill. In addition, participants contributed to the AU Farmer-Managed Seed Systems Bill, making the discussions a true eye-opener on many key issues related to Farmer-Managed Seed Systems.
Key findings
- Farmer-Managed Seed Systems (FMSS) are the backbone of Tanzanian agriculture, providing over 80% of seeds used by farmers and playing a vital role in food security, resilience, and agrobiodiversity, yet remain legally unrecognized and unsupported in the Seed Act of 2003.
- Tanzania’s seed laws lack clear provisions on farmer-managed seeds, creating uncertainty around farmers’ rights to save, exchange, and sell seed. This hinders alignment with international commitments like ITPGRFA and UNDROP.
- Legal recognition of FMSS within the Seed Act and other relevant laws is essential to protect farmers’ rights, enable diversity in seed systems, and promote innovation. Experiences from Ethiopia and India offer proven policy models.
- Inclusive registration systems and alternative quality assurance mechanisms like Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS) can reduce barriers for farmers and legitimize diverse seed practices while maintaining quality standards tailored to local realities.
- Institutional reforms, including reviving the PGRFA Bill and supporting community seed banks, are critical for long-term, systemic integration of FMSS into national agriculture policy and seed laws hence ensuring Tanzania builds a pluralistic, resilient, and sovereign seed system.
Workshop report and policy brief now available
The revised version of the workshop report is now available here: Creating space for FMSS Workshop Report 2025
A policy brief has also been produced and is available here: POLICY BRIEF CREATING SPACE FOR FMSS 2025
Happy reading!
Cultivated Diversity – Organic seeds for tasty food
A consumer-oriented flier from EU project LiveSeeding promotes organic plant breeding as a sustainable way to develop local adaption and climate resilience. It highlights the importance of increasing cultivated diversity, in particular with regards to diversified populations and open pollinated varieties, encouraging consumers to support organic farming and local economies by buying locally and advocating for organic seed use.
- Cultivated Diversity – Organic seeds for tasty food (EN)
- Kultivierte Vielfalt (DE)
- La diversité cultivé (FR)
- La diversita’ coltivata (IT)
Having enthusiastically embraced them in his work, Italian baker Stefano Piluso explains – in a YouTube video for Rete Semi Rurali that supports the message – how he became aware of wheat populations and learned to make bread with the stone-milled flour from those grains.
Agroecology Partnership: Opportunities for Seed Networks in Europe
The Agroecology Partnership, funded by Horizon Europe, is a transformative initiative uniting the European Commission and 72 partners across 26 countries. With a budget of €300 million, this ambitious project began on January 1, 2024, and will run until December...
EU plant breeders up against patents by the multinationals
Small European breeders, the keepers of agrobiodiversity with its potential to help farmers withstand the effects of climate change, are having to face up to an increasing number of patents requested by multinationals to the European Patent Office (EPO), a huge obstacle to the freedom of research and therefore innovation that benefits all but the agrochemical giants.
How does this work?
Patents can be requested to protect technological innovation, offering the innovator a competitive advantage on the market. With regards to seeds, patents can only be asked on plant characteristics that were defined through technological means, that is genetic modification and its latest equivalent: new GMOs, aka New Breeding Techniques (NBTs) or New Genomic Techniques (NGTs).
Previously falling under European GMO laws, the latter techniques are up for deregulation. Thanks to heavy lobbying by the multinationals in fact, the European Parliament voted earlier this year to deregulate NGTs, some of which might be even considered the equivalent of conventional breeding techniques.
Legal loopholes from such developments would enable multinationals to privatise, through patenting, more and more of the genetic material for plant breeding that has so far been available to researchers, material – we should point out – with traits that have been developed through generations of conventional breeding efforts. There are precedents already of EPO granting patents on plants from conventional breeding.
An article on euronews.com summarises the issue, quoting insigts from ECO-PB member and Dutch breeder Frans Carree, as well as from No Patent on Seeds.
For German speakers, an article is available on republik.ch too.
Cultivated Diversity – Organic seeds for tasty food
A consumer-oriented flier from EU project LiveSeeding promotes organic plant breeding as a sustainable way to develop local adaption and climate resilience. It highlights the importance of increasing cultivated diversity, in particular with regards to diversified populations and open pollinated varieties, encouraging consumers to support organic farming and local economies by buying locally and advocating for organic seed use.
- Cultivated Diversity – Organic seeds for tasty food (EN)
- Kultivierte Vielfalt (DE)
- La diversité cultivé (FR)
- La diversita’ coltivata (IT)
Having enthusiastically embraced them in his work, Italian baker Stefano Piluso explains – in a YouTube video for Rete Semi Rurali that supports the message – how he became aware of wheat populations and learned to make bread with the stone-milled flour from those grains.
EU plant breeders up against patents by the multinationals
Small European breeders, the keepers of agrobiodiversity with its potential to help farmers withstand the effects of climate change, are having to face up to an increasing number of patents requested by multinationals to the European Patent Office (EPO), a huge obstacle to the freedom of research and therefore innovation that benefits all but the agrochemical giants.
How does this work?
Patents can be requested to protect technological innovation, offering the innovator a competitive advantage on the market. With regards to seeds, patents can only be asked on plant characteristics that were defined through technological means, that is genetic modification and its latest equivalent: new GMOs, aka New Breeding Techniques (NBTs) or New Genomic Techniques (NGTs).
Previously falling under European GMO laws, the latter techniques are up for deregulation. Thanks to heavy lobbying by the multinationals in fact, the European Parliament voted earlier this year to deregulate NGTs, some of which might be even considered the equivalent of conventional breeding techniques.
Legal loopholes from such developments would enable multinationals to privatise, through patenting, more and more of the genetic material for plant breeding that has so far been available to researchers, material – we should point out – with traits that have been developed through generations of conventional breeding efforts. There are precedents already of EPO granting patents on plants from conventional breeding.
An article on euronews.com summarises the issue, quoting insigts from ECO-PB member and Dutch breeder Frans Carree, as well as from No Patent on Seeds.
For German speakers, an article is available on republik.ch too.
Welcome Foundation Alica and Semínkovna: New Members Strengthening ECLLD!
Exciting News: Welcoming New Members to the EC-LLD Family!
We’re thrilled to announce that the European Coordination Let’s Liberate Diversity is growing! Two inspiring new members have joined us following out Extraordinary Assembly in Antibes: Foundation Alica from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Semínkovna from the Czech Republic. With their commitment to seed diversity and community-based agroecology, they bring invaluable perspectives and experience to our network, and we couldn’t be more excited to welcome them.
Meet Foundation Alica
Foundation Alica, based in Bosnia and Herzegovina, has long been an influential voice in the Balkan Seed Network. Founded to raise awareness of biodiversity’s crucial role in food security, they work actively to preserve agrobiodiversity and local knowledge. With initiatives ranging from education and community engagement to on-farm seed conservation, Alica has supported countless efforts to revitalize traditional practices and empower local farmers. Their membership in ECLLD is expected to foster deeper connections within the Balkan Seed Network and inspire new regional partnerships. We look forward to the collaborative opportunities that lie ahead!
Introducing Semínkovna
Semínkovna, from the Czech Republic, has a mission close to our hearts. As leaders of a growing network of seed libraries (Semínkovny) and promoters of seed sovereignty, they focus on educating the public about the importance of locally adapted, non-hybrid seeds. From workshops to educational programs for children and adults, Semínkovna’s goal is to foster a culture of self-sufficiency and sustainable food practices through the preservation of native plant varieties. By joining ECLLD, they seek to expand their capacities, share expertise, and contribute to the promotion of fair seed legislation. With their dedication to biodiversity, they’re a fantastic addition to our European network.
With Foundation Alica and Semínkovna joining us, we’re thrilled to expand the EC-LLD family. Together, we’ll strengthen our impact on European seed policies, support sustainable agricultural practices, and empower communities to preserve our shared biodiversity heritage. Stay tuned for updates as we embark on this journey together with our incredible new members!
For more updates and to learn about our new members, visit the EC-LLD website, our members
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