EU rules will ban the patent (agreed by the Munich-based office in error) for the process that could lead to human cloning

Brussels, 22/02/2000 (Agence Europe) - If it ever comes into being, the patent erroneously agreed by the European Patent Office in Munich to the University of Edinburgh and the Australian biotechnology firm Stem Cell Sciences for a process that could lead to human cloning has no chance of being used legally in the Union, the spokesman for European Commissioner Erkki Liikanen (industry) told the press on Tuesday. This is the case for the following reasons:

• The probability of confirmation of the patent decision is minute since the Patent Office, which has recognised the error, is counting on implementation of the third-party opposition procedure to reverse its decision. Greenpeace has already announced that it would use this right of opposition.
• Should the patent be issued nonetheless, it would be illegal in the Union from 30 July next, the date of entry into force of the European directive on the protection of biotechnological inventions, which explicitly bans human cloning, specifying that "the human body, at different stages of its formation and development, and the simple discovery of one of its elements, including a partial gene sequence, may not be patented".

A decision was taken last December on the questionable patent for a process consisting of the isolation, selection and propagation of genetically modified animal cells, a passage referring to human cells having escaped the notice of Patent Office personnel.

Created in 1977 by the Convention on the Issue of European Patents of 1973, the European Patent Office is totally independent of the European institutions. All the Union Member States are members of the Office (plus Liechtenstein, Monaco, Switzerland and Cyprus). Its mission is to issue bundles of national patents under a uniform and centralised procedure to companies seeking patent protection in all the countries that are members of the Office.