§ Mr. DalyellTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will make a statement, pursuant to his letter to the hon. Member for Linlithgow of 20 December 1990, on the progress of the EC discussions on the generally accepted biological meaning of the expression "variety" in relation to the EC proposal in relation to biotechnological inventions.
§ Mr. LeighThe draft EC directive on the legal protection of biotechnological inventions excludes both plant and animal varieties from patentability. For plants, this exclusion will probably be interpreted in accordance with a definition expected to be introduced into the international convention for the protection of new varieties of plants (UPOV convention) when it is revised at a diplomatic conference to be held in March. For animals, there is no generally accepted biological meaning of the expression "variety" and progress in determining the scope of the exclusion is slow. The next meeting to discuss the draft directive will probably be in April; however, it may be that the exclusion of animal varieties will not be comprehensively discussed until a final decision has been reached by the European patent office on an application which is presently before it for a method of producing transgenic animals.