3. Can a plant invention be patented?

3.1 Principle

The article L. 611-19 du Code de la propriété intellectuelle excludes from patentability:

• plant varieties as defined in Article 5 of the Community Plant Variety Rights Regulation;

• essentially biological processes for obtaining plants using exclusively natural phenomena such as crossing or selection;

• since the entry into force of the "biodiversity" law, "products obtained exclusively by essentially biological processes, including the elements that make up these products and the...