In a landmark decision today, the European Patent Office upheld a decision to revoke a patent on a fungicidal product derived from seeds of the Neem, a tree indigenous to the Indian subcontinent.
The historic action resulted from a legal challenge mounted ten years ago by three Opponents: the renowned Indian environmentalist Vandana Shiva, Magda Aelvoet, then MEP and President of the Greens in the European Parliament, and the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM).
Their joint Legal Opposition claimed the fungicidal properties of the Neem tree had been public knowledge in India for many centuries and that this patent exemplified how international law was being misused to transfer biological wealth from the South into the hands of a few corporations, scientists, and countries of the North.
The EPO’s Technical Board of Appeals dismissed an Appeal by the would-be proprietors?the United States of America and the company Thermo Trilogy?and maintained the decision of its Opposition Division five years ago to revoke the Neem patent in its entirety.
Dr. Vandana Shiva, commented, “Denying the patent means upholding the value of traditional knowledge for millions of women not only in India, but throughout the South. The FREE TREE WILL STAY FREE. This victory is the result of extremely long solidarity. It is a victory of committed citizens over commercial interests and big powers.”
Magda Aelvoet, Belgian Minister of State and former Health and Environment Minister, was President of the Green Group in the European Parliament when the original Opposition was submitted. She commented, “Our victory against biopiracy is threefold. First, it is a victory for traditional knowledge and practices. This is the first time anybody has been able to have a patent rejected on these grounds. Second, it is a victory for solidarity: With the people of developing countries?who have definitively earned the sovereign rights to their natural resources?and and with our colleagues in the NGOs, who fought with us against this patent for the last ten years. And third, coming as it does on International Women’s Day, this is also a victory for women. The three people who successfully argued this case against the might of the U.S. administration and its corporate allies, were women: Vandana Shiva, Linda Bullard and myself. It can also inspire and help people from developing countries who suffer the same kind of theft but did not think it was possible to combat it.”
Although two days had been set aside to examine the Appeal, the case was so clear that the Technical Board of Appeals needed only two hours to reach a decision to dismiss the Appeal.
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