Biotechnology patents still a prickly issue
The patenting of biotechnological inventions remains a divisive point in the European Union following the failure of some Member States to agree on implementation of a European Directive covering the issue. Full implementation of the conditions of the Directive, which harmonises the patenting of living material in Europe, were brought into force only in Finland and Denmark at the beginning of the week. While most of the other countries have made clear that they will implement the Directive as soon as possible and certainly during the summer, France, Italy and the Netherlands have all postponed implementation. The Directive was adopted in 1998, with only the dissenting over its message at the time. But since then, concern among certain Member States over how the Community law compares to national provisions have thrown into doubt the ease of implementing the Directive. The Directive specifies that patents of new inventions are permissible, but not of discoveries. Patenting of vegetable strands and varieties, animal species, the modification procedures of human genetic identity and reproductive cloning procedures are all banned under the Directive.