§ Lord Kennetasked Her Majesty's Government:
What is their view of the status in international law of claims to patent animals whose genetic make-up has been altered by human intervention.
§ The Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (Lord Young of Graffham)International law does not deal specifically with the patenting of genetically560WA engineered animals. Work is however under way in the World Intellectual Property Organisation with a view to harmonising national provisions governing the protection of biotechnological inventions. No patents for genetically engineered animals have been granted in the United Kingdom. A patent application in respect of such an invention, whether filed at the British Patent Office or at the European Patent Office, would need to satisfy the requirements for patentability applied to any invention—namely, that it be new, non-obvious and industrially applicable; further, a patent would not be granted for the product of a biological (other than microbiological) process.
I am not aware of any need to change these requirements in respect of this particular kind of invention; I will however carefully consider the result of the work on biotechnology being undertaken by the World Intellectual Property Organisation.