Rights for plants?; Bean patent scuppered

Fellow UK patent attorney Tim Roberts has kindly pointed the IPKat towards an unusual report recently issued by the Swiss Federal Ethics Committee on Non-Human Biotechnology, titled "The dignity of living beings with regard to plants". The report discusses whether provisions should be made for the ethical treatment of plants, perhaps in a similar way to that of humans and animals. Tim also points out that there is a 'spirited' discussion of the issue on the Nature website, where the story has been covered.

While not directly related to IP, opinions arising out of this kind of debate could have significant effects on moral and ethical exceptions to patentability (for example the exceptions under Article 53 EPC). The IPKat would not like to prejudice anyone's views on this apparently sensitive subject, leaving his readers to judge for themselves. He would, however, like to point out that this is, as far as he can work out, not a joke.

On more down-to-earth issues, the IPKat reads that the apparently notorious 'Enola bean' patent (US 5894079) has been finally rejected by the USPTO Board of Appeal, after a request for re-examination was made several years ago by pressure group ETC (which reports the story here). More information on the long-running story (which may not yet have reached its conclusion) is available here.