Patents for Higher Plants and Higher Animals
Under patent laws of most countries, a patentable invention must be capable of industrial application. Agriculture is also treated as an industry in this connection, so that a wide range of agricultural and horticultural methods and products can be patented, provided these are inventions and represent novelties.
Biopesticides and bioinsecticides are such examples. Extensive patent literature is also available on the use of Bacillus thuringiensisand on the use of mycoherbicides(fungi). Other examples include (i) novel techniques of plant micropropagation, and (ii) plant-cell and tissue-culture methods to prepare useful metabolites.

In Europe also, patents are allowed for such plants and animals, even though plant varieties and animal varieties are excluded. In this connection there have also been disputes regarding what constitutes a variety.
Patent claim for a soybean variety applied by Pioneer Hi-bred, was rejected by Supreme Court of Canada, on the ground that no description of the method was available, although the seeds of the variety were deposited. In some cases hybrid varieties were also considered patentable.
It is not certain whether the meaning of a 'variety' will be restricted, orif the scope of a variety will be wider. This is an area which is receiving major attention in several countries and will be resolved in the coming years.