HC Deb 18 January 1994 vol 235 cc517-8W
Mr. Fatchett

To ask the President of the Board of Trade, pursuant to his answer of 7 December 1993, Official Report, column 152, if he will set out those criteria which will be used to determine which sequences of nucleotides of specific industrial application, which may be derived from human genes, will be suitable to be patentable.

Mr. McLoughlin

[holding answer 17 January 1994]: Since the law does not specifically preclude patents for genetic sequences, judgments need to be made on any applications for patents in this area by the patent examiner dealing with a particular application. These judgments will turn on the individual circumstances of the case and the law provides that they can be tested in the courts. It is therefore not possible for the Patent Office to set down specific criteria to determine which sequences may be patentable.

As explained in the answer of 7 December 1993, normal criteria of novelty and inventive step are used to determine when a sequence of nucleotides is patentable. This means, for novelty, that the sequence must not have been disclosed anywhere before the filing of the application and, in relation to the inventive step, that the patent examiner must make a judgment on the degree of ingenuity involved in locating the gene of interest and any subsequent cloning or sequencing work.