Berlin faces pressure over biotech patents 

Parliament Favors Ban on Patenting Engineered Genes and Genetic Sequences

HANDELSBLATT 24nov00

HB BERLIN -- Pressure is building on the German government to put a sharper edge on its new law on patenting the results of biotechnological research and development.

At its meeting on December 1, the German parliament's commission on biotech ethics expects a majority of votes from state representatives in the Bundesrat, Germany's second house of parliament, in favor of a general ban on patenting new life elements such as engineered genes and genetic sequences.

According to people familiar with the matter, the commission will discuss a recommendation drawn up by the legal committee of the German federal states that patents be limited to invented alterations carried out on biological material. If this proposal becomes law, it will be in direct conflict with the European Patent Office's 1998 directive on biotechnological patents. This was intended as the blueprint for German law.

If Germany's parliament decides to follow the recommendation and rewrite its law, the European Commission in Brussels will be obliged to file an objection.

Right now, German biotech companies are at a severe disadvantage against competition from the U.S., where the patent office is flooded with applications for biotechnology patents that are awaiting approval.

Dieter Laudien, chairman of the patent committee at Germany's Pharmaceutical Research Association said he sees no reason to change the law. He said that a change will create rampant legal insecurity, which will scare away investment in biotech. Biotech-patent guidelines have been discussed on the European level for ten years now, he points out, and Germany's been a integrated partner in those discussions.

Germany's Biotech Industry Association is also saying that the German law should be a literal adaptation of the EU guidelines.

Germany's biotech industry currently employs over 9,000 people in 400 companies. This year, the combined risk capital for the industry from private financing and stock offerings totaled over one billion euros.

http://www.handelsblatt.com 19 Dec 2000