Seminar Prof Fabien Girard
New Genomic Techniques and Gene-Edited Plants: towards Industrial Property in the Service of Plant Innovation in Europe? - Monday, 12 October 2026 11 am, INRAE, Versailles
This paper sets out the conclusions of a forthcoming report on new genomic techniques (NGTs) and intellectual property, prepared by a research team within the French priority research programme (PEPR) "Sélection Végétale Avancée" SVA (Advanced Plant Breeding), which brings together legal scholars, economists, management scholars and biologists.
The report argues that the legal framework now in place – first and foremost Regulation (EU) 2026/1388 of 17 June 2026 on plants obtained by certain new genomic techniques and their products – falls short of securing the three pillars of plant innovation: legal protection for innovation; a plurality of innovation models, which presupposes a dense and diversified fabric of breeding enterprises; and the preservation of, and continued access to, genetic diversity.
It therefore calls for far-reaching reform, the centrepiece of which would be the introduction into patent law of a full breeders’ exemption – the freedom to use patented plant material as starting material and to commercialise the variety thereby obtained – rather than a challenge to the patentability of NGT plants as such: the course favoured by the European Parliament in its first-reading position of 7 February 2024, supported by a section of stakeholders, but not retained in the final text.
The paper will take stock of what the Regulation contributes in the field of industrial property – in particular its transparency requirements and the review process it sets in motion – and will consider a series of complementary proposals: tightening the requirements for patentability; relaxing the conditions governing the grant of compulsory cross-licences in cases of dependency between patents and plant variety rights; and introducing penalties to secure transparency as to varieties incorporating patented material.
The seminar will be in French.
Prof. Fabien Girard, UFR Law Faculty, Centre de recherches juridiques" CPJ, Université Grenoble Alpes - UGA, Grenoble Junior Member of the Institut Universitaire de France - IUF
Seminar in connection with the research developed at the Institute Jean-Pierre Bourgin for Plant Sciences.
The report argues that the legal framework now in place – first and foremost Regulation (EU) 2026/1388 of 17 June 2026 on plants obtained by certain new genomic techniques and their products – falls short of securing the three pillars of plant innovation: legal protection for innovation; a plurality of innovation models, which presupposes a dense and diversified fabric of breeding enterprises; and the preservation of, and continued access to, genetic diversity.
It therefore calls for far-reaching reform, the centrepiece of which would be the introduction into patent law of a full breeders’ exemption – the freedom to use patented plant material as starting material and to commercialise the variety thereby obtained – rather than a challenge to the patentability of NGT plants as such: the course favoured by the European Parliament in its first-reading position of 7 February 2024, supported by a section of stakeholders, but not retained in the final text.
The paper will take stock of what the Regulation contributes in the field of industrial property – in particular its transparency requirements and the review process it sets in motion – and will consider a series of complementary proposals: tightening the requirements for patentability; relaxing the conditions governing the grant of compulsory cross-licences in cases of dependency between patents and plant variety rights; and introducing penalties to secure transparency as to varieties incorporating patented material.
The seminar will be in French.
Prof. Fabien Girard, UFR Law Faculty, Centre de recherches juridiques" CPJ, Université Grenoble Alpes - UGA, Grenoble Junior Member of the Institut Universitaire de France - IUF
Seminar in connection with the research developed at the Institute Jean-Pierre Bourgin for Plant Sciences.
Back
