ABSTRACT
Demonstrators brandishing placards: “Einspruch! Kein Patent auf Leben!” and other street demonstrations are hardly routine occurrences in the patent field, though they do give the flavour of the problems posed by patents relating to transgenic animals, even if, incidentally, the claims in question are equally applicable to other subject matter including, for example, transgenic plants and human genes. There is no need to examine in detail the matter of interpretation of these criteria, but they can be applied to inventions in the field of biotechnology, and specifically to transgenic animals, without insurmountable difficulties. However, with regard to the problem relating to the concept of “animal varieties”, the recent decision T356/93 has been able to shed further light. The concept of being contrary to “morality” was set aside because, according to the Board, the invention, the cells and the plants “cannot be considered to be wrong as such in the light of conventionally accepted standards of conduct of European culture”.
