Home | Databases | WorldLII | Search | Feedback Edited Legal Collections Data

Minssen, Timo --- "Patenting human genes in Europe – and how it compares to the US and Australia" [2017] ELECD 804; in Matthews, Duncan; Zech, Herbert (eds), "Research Handbook on Intellectual Property and the Life Sciences" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2017) 26

Book Title: Research Handbook on Intellectual Property and the Life Sciences

Editor(s): Matthews, Duncan; Zech, Herbert

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781783479443

Section: Chapter 3

Section Title: Patenting human genes in Europe – and how it compares to the US and Australia

Author(s): Minssen, Timo

Number of pages: 15

Abstract/Description:

Since the early 1980s the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), the European Patent Office (EPO) and the Japanese Patent Office (JPO), have granted thousands of patents with product and method claims involving (human) DNA sequences. DNA and proteins were treated like ‘special’ chemical compounds, and patents were held to be the most appropriate means to enhance economic growth and to incentivize innovation and progress in science.Hence, so-called ‘gene-patents’ were inter alia granted for specific isolated genes and corresponding proteins, their chemical composition, the processes for obtaining or using such sequences, or for combinations of such claims. Relevant claims thus typically cover the isolated natural sequences of genes and proteins, the use of natural sequences for particular purposes such as diagnostic testing, or sequences that had been modified through human intervention for particular applications. However, the grant of such ‘DNA patents’ has provoked numerous concerns. In addition to utilitarian debates on the general role of patents in the life science sector, there has been much discussion about whether genetic discoveries and their uses meet the basic legal requirements for patentability,and whether it is ethical to patent what some regard as the common heritage of the human race.