ABSTRACT
The patenting of biotechnological inventions by the major patent offices in the world has prompted a lot of controversy in various sections of society. The European Patent Office therefore welcomes this workshop because it offers a good platform for presenting the different approaches at issue and for open discussion. This chapter presents some invention and illustrates each type with examples of European patent applications or granted patents. Some invention includes: animals, gene therapy, and isolation of human genes to produce medical substances, plants, and micro-organisms. The patent on the Oncomouse was eventually granted, but 17 opponents objected to the patent so that an opposition procedure took place before the Opposition Division. Gene therapy on human beings, although still in its initial stage of development in practice, has given rise to fundamental questions in society. Human sources for obtaining medicines by genetic engineering are preferred to animal sources because of their greater immunological tolerance in the human body.
