ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the way the European Patent Office has responded to the calls from industry for patent protection for biotechnological inventions through a number of controversial decisions. It also looks at the way the EU has tried to ameliorate the controversy without either jeopardizing the investment in biotechnology or avoiding the concerns of those opposed to such patents through its proposal for a directive on the legal protection of biotechnological inventions. Developments in biotechnology have raised serious questions about the extent to which, if at all, patent law should protect inventions involving genetic material. One of the most interesting and potentially significant differences between the amendments tabled by the European Parliament and the revised text published by the European Commission in September 1997 is in respect of the need to obtain consent before a patent application can be made.
