The EPO’s Examination Division in January 2011 wrote a letter to the Seminis seed company to tell them that there are no fundamental objections to a patent application on tomatoes. Seminis, a subsidiary of the US company Monsanto, applied for a patent on conventionally-bred tomatoes that have less core (EP1026942). The EPO has been sending similar examination reports to other applicants too.  “If this development is not stopped, within a few years there might be no more seeds on the market that are not covered by patents. Corporations such as Monsanto, Syngenta and Dupont will then decide what plants are grown and which food is sold in Europe and how much it will cost,” says Christoph Then, one of the spokespersons of the No Patents On Seeds coalition.  Article  Update: US Supreme Court Protects Monsanto’s Seeds.  Article