[Coral-List] Urgent message to all coral list members

Michael Arvedlund arvedlund at speedpost.net
Fri Jun 3 10:56:53 EDT 2005


Regarding a possible patent on coral fragmentation – 

Dear everybody, a friend of mine sent me this mail below here, which I
think you all should have a chance to read. Regards, Mike Arvedlund,
Sesoko Station, Okinawa, Japan. (arvedlund at speedpost.net).

This is the email: 

“You will find below and attached some information transmitted by the
coordinators of the EUAC Coral ASP concerning a patent on coral
propagation techniques under application process. The patent application
is made by a French company. You will find here after a list of website
pages, at which you can view the patent applications (some are not 
concerning the corals but are inserted as additional information).

http://l2.espacenet.com/espacenet/viewer?PN=FR2857946&CY=fr&LG=fr&DB=EPD
http://l2.espacenet.com/espacenet/viewer?PN=CA2462921&CY=fr&LG=fr&DB=EPD
http://l2.espacenet.com/espacenet/viewer?PN=EP1488696&CY=fr&LG=fr&DB=EPD
http://fr.espacenet.com/espacenet/fr/fr/e_net.htm
http://l2.espacenet.com/espacenet/viewer?PN=FR2854387&CY=fr&LG=fr&DB=EPD

You can also have access to the different data about of the patent
application through the European Patent Office (EPO) website
http://my.epoline.org/portal/public

to get in the website, you have to: register (it takes 1 minute..),
receive your username and password, enter your password and your user
name and, visit "File inspection"

The application number is : EP04102643

A lot of people are concerned by this patent. As an example, you will
also find attached a letter of information written by Waterweelde giving
the standpoint of this company. The EUAC committee think that the matter
is quiet serious as it seems that Aquaria that use such techniques for
coral propagation for quite a long time now, could not do it anymore due
to this patent. To use these techniques, the Aquaria should pay fees. If
not, they could be at risk to be sued by the patent owner. A lot of work
about coral propagation has been done with very good results by
different institutions in Europe prior to the French company who wants
to patent the technique. We think that such work should be taken in
account by the Office in charge of reviewing the application.

A message had been sent on the discussion forum of the group
(EUACCoralASP at yahoogroups.com), raising many answers from various
institutions.

It clearly shows that there is a general concern about that matter. We
invite anybody who is concerned by this matter to contact the EUAC Coral
ASP coordinators to see what evidence (document, litterature, photos,
video..) showing that these techniques were used successfully prior to
2003, could be gathered and sent to the office in charge of reviewing
the patent.
Then, a letter (with, as an attachment, all the references of the
evidences gathered) should be sent by EUAC to the office. It is very
urgent to act as the patent will be granted next month, 23rd june.
Anybody who thinks he can help should show up very quickly. The EUAC
secretary will be kept informed about the progress. Please inform the
EUAC secretariat about the undertaken actions.

Best regards to everybody.

EUAC Secretary General
 Oceanographic Museum
Avenue Saint-Martin
MC 98000 MONACO
Phone +377 93 15 36 00
Fax +377 93 50 52 97
euac at oceano.mc

Dr. Michael Arvedlund
JSPS Research Fellow
Tropical Biosphere Research Center 
Sesoko Station University of the Ryukyus 
3422 Sesoko Motobu Okinawa 905-0227 Japan
Office Telephone: +81-980-47-6001 
FAX: +81-980-47-4919
E-mail: arvedlund at speedpost.net




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