De Bolster: another Dutch SME under patent threat
In April 2024, Inf’OGM reported on its interview with a Dutch seed company feeling threatened by KWS patents. This is not an isolated case since De Bolster, another Dutch seed company, has had to apply constant legal vigilance for several years to prevent its varietal varieties from being covered by an ever-increasing number of patent rights, otherwise its survival would be jeopardized. Frans Carree, Director of De Bolster’s Variety Development Department, answered our questions.
Patents pose a real threat to two plant breeders
Since autumn 2023, the issue of patents has come to the fore in the debates surrounding the deregulation of GMOs. Some Member States and MEPs are concerned about the impact of agro-industry patents on the rest of the agricultural sector. History shows that the threats they represent are very real indeed. Here are two examples of seed companies whose products are targeted by such threats.
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