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 arc inventions and represent novelties.

Biopesticides and bioinseticides arc such examples. Extensive patent literature is also available on the use of Bacillus thuringiensis and mycoherbicides (fungi). Other examples include

(i) novel techniques of plant micropropagation, and

In view of these cases, Patent and Trademark Office now considers claims for patents of 'non naturally occurring non human multicellular living organisms'. Japanese patent law is not very different from the US law and patents for animals and plants have been granted in Japan also, provided these were products of specific methods or inventions.

In Europe also patents are allowed for such plants and animals, even thugh plant varieties and animal varieties arc 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, or if 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.