German Biopatent Law Rejects the EU

Unlike their EU peers,Germany appears ready to reject broad patent protection for gene sequences.

Joseph Straus, managing director of the Max Planck Institute for Intellectual Property, Competition, and Tax Law, told The Scientist that a biotechnology amendment approved last Friday (December 3) by Germany's Bundestag, or lower house of Parliament, would limit patent protection on human gene sequences to "disclosed functions" at the time of the patent application.