ABSTRACT
The application of intellectual property in the area of life technologies or biotechnology has provoked tremendous controversy and condemnation of the extension of proprietary rights over inventions derived from or relating to living material. The concern regarding the ownership of life is perhaps the critical moral controversy in the creation of proprietary rights in biotechnology. Although the exclusive rights conferred by the patent monopoly raise specific issues with respect to the subject matter at stake, the 'authorship' of that subject matter is what is perhaps more unsettling in the context of life technologies. The key piece of legislation regulating intellectual property in biotechnology in Europe is the Biotechnology Directive. In particular, the passage of the Biotechnology Directive met with opposition largely articulated upon the undesirability and immorality of proprietary rights being granted over material occurring in the natural environment. The relationship between the commercial framework of patent law and the ethical context is important.
