Overview

The Court of Justice of the European Union has handed down its decision on the scope of protection to be afforded to DNA sequence patents.

The Court has followed the Advocate General's opinion (which was handed down in April this year) that Article 9 of the Biotechnology Directive means that patent protection for gene sequences only extends to material where the genetic material is currently performing its function.

So, in this case, a patent for a gene in a soya plant conferring herbicide resistance does not extend to ‘dead’ soya meal where the gene no longer performs its herbicide resistance function.

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