European Court allows patenting of stem cell technologies
10 January 2013
Elizabeth Gibney, tsleducation
A court in Germany has given a "glimmer of hope" to inventors hoping to patent human embryonic stem cell technologies in Europe.
In interpreting a landmark decision by THE EUROPEAN COURT OF JUSTICE, THE GERMAN FEDERAL COURT OF JUSTICE HAS RULED THAT TECHNOLOGIES INVOLVING CELLS DERIVED FROM HUMAN EMBRYONIC STEM CELLS THAT DO NOT DIRECTLY INVOLVE THE DESTRUCTION OF HUMAN EMBRYOS CAN BE PATENTED.
The court upheld a patent awarded to University of Bonn professor Oliver Brustle, which had been disputed in a legal challenge by Greenpeace under the EU Biotechnology Directive, which bans the use of human embryos for industrial and commercial purposes.
In a decision in October 2011, the European Court of Justice ruled that technologies that have at any stage involved the destruction of a human embryo could not be patented, leading stem cell researchers to fear that translational research in Europe might suffer. There is thought to be no similar restriction on patenting outside Europe.
However, in interpreting this ruling on 27 November 2012, the German court determined that in vitro cells derived from the blastocyst stage of embryo development did not themselves have the capability to develop into people, and therefore did not count as human embryos.
The ruling means that, except when stem cells are harvested by destroying human embryos, cells derived from human embryonic stem cells can be patented. ……..
Elk, even if the European Court of Justice dissaproved the use of ESC, and ACT's treatments prove to cure blindness in people with AMD and SMD, the people in Europe would riot against this draconian law.
Also, the people in Europe could travel to the nearest countries that would allowed these treatments, like England, and you know that France will, too.