HC Deb 11 June 1997 vol 295 cc468-9W
Mr. Baker

To ask the President of the Board of Trade what is her policy on the patenting of life forms. [2844]

Mr. Battle

Apart from the exclusion of plant and animal varieties from patentability, current United Kingdom patent law permits the patenting of life forms.

Such inventions are considered against the same general criteria of novelty, inventive step and industrial applicability applied to all fields of technology.