EU Court Rules Against Stem Cell Patents For Research

LibRT writes with this excerpt from the BBC: "Europe's highest court has ruled that stem cells from human embryos cannot be patented, in a case that could have major implications for medicine. ... The European Court of Justice said in a statement: 'The use of human embryos for therapeutic or diagnostic purposes which are applied to the human embryo and are useful to it is patentable. But their use for purposes of scientific research is not patentable.' It added: 'A process which involves removal of a stem cell from a human embryo at the blastocyst [early embryo] stage, entailing the destruction of that embryo, cannot be patented.'"

Comments

Re:What about techniques that don't destroy it?

[reve_etrange]

No.

In conclusion, the Court holds that an invention is excluded from patentability where the implementation of the process requires either the prior destruction of human embryos or their prior use as base material, even if, in the patent application, the description of that process, as in the present case, does not refer to the use of human embryos.

Official Press Release

[reve_etrange]

The official press release is here. It is much more specific and easier to interpret than the BBC article, which is perfunctory as usual.

Re:What about techniques that don't destroy it?

[reve_etrange]

Oh, unless of course the technique is useful to the embryo. Forgot to mention this important exception...

Nevertheless, the Court points out that the patentability of uses of human embryos for industrial or commercial purposes is not prohibited under the Directive where it concerns the use for therapeutic or diagnostic purposes which are applied to the human embryo and which are useful to it – for example to correct a malformation and improve the chances of life.

Re:The point is moo

[MightyMartian]

The Eurozone and the EU are two different things. A collapse of the Eurozone is not a collapse of the EU.

Fuckin-A !

[RedLeg]

For non-american consumers of the english language, the subject line means: "Damn right, about time!"

Hopefully the sanity will spread in a viral sense internationally, as in to the US and other patent-tarded(tm) countries.

Red

Woot

[tsa]

Nice to see there are still some brain cells working in the EU.

Re:Woot

[Alex Belits]

No. This is actually two stories in one.

1. EU allows patenting of medical procedures on cellular level (it would be patentable if it was for the "benefit" of the embryo.
2. EU adopted US-style "embryos are babies!!!" bullshit. The only reason why it was not patentable was because it affects "dignity" of embryo. Remainder of sanity prevented them, so far, from charging anyone with murder, however they can't possibly avoid this line of reasoning unless they will reverse the whole thing.

Re:Woot

[Zironic]

Huh? It's important to realize that the EU only regulates economic policies, not criminal ones. The member states have full independence on how they want to define murder.

Secondly the relevant law referred to is this:
Article 6

1. Inventions shall be considered unpatentable where their commercial exploitation would be contrary to ordre public or morality; however, exploitation shall not be deemed to be so contrary merely because it is prohibited by law or regulation.

2. On the basis of paragraph 1, the following, in particular, shall be considered unpatentable:

(a) processes for cloning human beings;

(b) processes for modifying the germ line genetic identity of human beings;

(c) uses of human embryos for industrial or commercial purposes;

(d) processes for modifying the genetic identity of animals which are likely to cause them suffering without any substantial medical benefit to man or animal, and also animals resulting from such processes.

The bad and the ugly

[rmstar]

This is one of those things. Here the broken patent system came together with religion and superstition and the outcome is not good for anyone. Embryos are now considered full human beings before the law, which will have detrimental repercussions in law everywhere (for example, abortion law). Research on the use of stem cells will be seriously delayed, if not halted altogether, and not because of the lack of patents (which would, if anything, spur innovation by removing legal risks).

There are a lot of therapies for serious illnesses that could be developed without these insane religious sensibilities. So much suffering for nothing.

discovering

[LingNoi]

In older days these kind of things would have been called "discovery" rather then "invention". I predict a future where people will claim to have invented math too. Oh wait, that would be software patents.

Science?

[EnsilZah]

I'm appalled at the reaction of the scientists, one guy basically said "We get funded by the public to do the research but how are we supposed to monetize it without patents?".
This is not how I was brought up to believe science is supposed to be conducted.

Re:Science?

[kwikrick]

No, he's basically saying: Why research something that will never be used? No company is going to invest huge sums in technology that cannot be patented. A university cannot be expected (and will not get funded!) to work out the details needed for mass production, or run the expensive trials needed for FDA approval.

Re:Questions...?

[Zironic]

In Europe it's almost never a question about "oh my, we shouldn't play God" in public debate since most countries have pushed religion out of the political sphere.

Rather the issue is that it's hard to distinguish bioengineering humans from racial biology, which is a field that Europe has shunned ever since the Nazi's lost the war since the fear is that those atrocities might happen again.