Contradictory meaning of the provision,
No guidance on the interpretation of the term "essentially biological process for the production of plants in Article 53(b) EPC,
Meaning of that exclusion: production of plants vs. plant varieties - production vs. "Züchtung" and "obtention" (not decided),
Interpretation of 'essentially biological',
Conclusions from legislative history,
Exclusion of processes based on sexual crossing of whole genomes and on subsequent selection of plants (yes),
Addition of technical step serving the performance of the process steps - not sufficient to escape exclusion,
Inclusion within that process of a step by itself modifying the genome of the plant produced - process not excluded from patentability,
Admissibility of referrals (yes),
Applicable law Article 33(1)(b) EPC and substantive patent law,
Protection of "legitimate" expectations Rule 26(5) EPC and Article 2(2) Biotech Directive as exhaustive definitions (yes),
"Crossing and "selection" natural phenomena by way of a legal fiction (no),
Legislative history of Article 2(2) Biotech Directive,
The Article 52(4) EPC 1973 analogy (no) - the computer-related inventions approach(no) - the T 320/87 approach - criteria linked to the state of the art (no),
"The systematic context of Article 53(b) EPC - the legislative history of the SPC and the EPC 1973