In its decision on December 5, 2018, the Technical Board of Appeal (TBA) of the European Patent Office (EPO) judged that a recently adopted rule, which prohibits the grant of patents for plants exclusively obtained by means of an essentially biological process, conflicts with the articles of the European Patent Convention (EPC). This decision (Case No. T 1063/18, related to Syngenta’s patent application EP2753168 for pepper plants) presents the latest development in the ongoing legal uncertainty pertaining to whether plant products produced by essential biological processes are patentable or not. Readers will recall the Tomato-II and Broccoli-II decisions (G 2/12 and G 2/13) of 2015, in which it was decided that individual plants could be patented, even if they were the result of traditional breeding methods involving crossing and selection.