Patent Law and Biological Conventions

Scientific breakthroughs, particularly in biotechnology, are putting huge pressures on patent law.

In a spectacular example in 2000, the English poet and part-time casino waitress, Donna MacLean, sought a patent application in respect of herself.

She explained that she had satisfied the usual patent criteria: she was novel, inventive and useful, and had many industrial applications.

This collection considers a wide range of biological inventions - micro-organisms, plants and flowers, transgenic animals, genes, express sequence tags and research tools, as well as genetic diagnostic tests and pharmaceutical drugs.

It compares and contrasts the approaches of different jurisdictions.

American and Canadian developments are considered and there is a particular focus on the complexities of the 1998 European Union Directive on the Legal Protection of Biotechnological Inventions, together with decisions of member states, such as The Netherlands, and peripheral states, like Iceland.

The book also focuses on recent developments in Australia especially in the wake of parallel policy inquiries into gene patents and access to genetic resources.