EU Sues Member Nations To Force Change In Patent Laws

ipandithurts writes "The European Union has brought member nations to court to force them to pass laws modifying their current patent laws to match the laws required by the EU. These requirements essentially centers around biotechnology patent law.After a 10-year debate, the EU adopted what it called "strict ethical rules" for patenting biotech inventions in 1998 and gave member states until July 30, 2000, to transpose them into national law. Germany, Austria, Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Sweden still have not done so, prompting the European Commission to refer them to the European Court of Justice. Their failure to implement the EU directive "has created trade barriers and hampered the internal market," it said. "Non-implementation ... is putting the European biotechnology sector at a serious disadvantage." Seeking to allay public concerns about patenting processes using human genes or DNA molecules, the rules ban patents for cloning human beings or modifying their genetic identity, as well as the use of human embryos for industrial purposes. The Commission said last year that it expects that the global biotechnology market, not counting agriculture, could amount to more than euro2 trillion ($2.26 trillion) by 2010."

Comments

Interresting that core EU member states

[Homology]

like Germany, France and Italy has not implemented the directive. Do they have second thoughts about this, and thus delaying? For what reasons?

So many nations

[Spudley]

Germany, Austria, Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Sweden

What the...? That's more than half the nations in the EU, and with Germany and France, two of the biggest and most powerful.

So my question is simple: How on earth did this law ever get ratified by the EU in the first place if the majority of nations had no intention of implimenting it? Sounds to me like something is seriously wrong with the democratic process.