The Court of Justice of the European Union Clarifies When Human Embryonic Stem Cells Can Be Patented
Enrico Bonadio
City University London - The City Law School
Angelo Maria Rovati
University of Pavia
June 1, 2015
European Journal of Risk Regulation, 5(2) 2015
Abstract:
On 18 December 2014, in International Stem Cell Corporation v. Comptroller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks (C-364/13), the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) delivered an important decision regarding the scope of the exclusion from patentability on morality-related grounds under Article 6(2) of the EU Biotech Directive.
The Court made an important distinction between embryonic stem cell technologies based on fertilised human ovum and those based on unfertilised human ovum stimulated by parthenogenesis. The CJEU held, in particular, that a human ovum: (i) who is unfertilized and (ii) whose division and further development has been stimulated by parthenogenesis, is not a human embryo under Article 6(2)(c) of the Biotech Directive, if it in itself has not the inherent capacity of developing into a human being, this matter to be ascertained by the national court in the light of current scientific knowledge.
By doing so, the Court clarified its previous ruling in Brüstle (October 2011).
The Court made an important distinction between embryonic stem cell technologies based on fertilised human ovum and those based on unfertilised human ovum stimulated by parthenogenesis. The CJEU held, in particular, that a human ovum: (i) who is unfertilized and (ii) whose division and further development has been stimulated by parthenogenesis, is not a human embryo under Article 6(2)(c) of the Biotech Directive, if it in itself has not the inherent capacity of developing into a human being, this matter to be ascertained by the national court in the light of current scientific knowledge.
By doing so, the Court clarified its previous ruling in Brüstle (October 2011).
Full text available at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2620733
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