European Directive on the Legal Protection of Biotechnological Inventions: Scope, Status and Controversies in a Nutshell
AbstractThe paper examines the extent to which the objections levelled at the Eurpean Union Council's 1998 Directive on the 'legal protection of biotechnological inventions' can be justified. The author first describes what the main provisions and goals of the Directive are, and secondly discusses the opinions of the leading scholars in this field in order to assess whether the legislation adequately fulfilled its purposes overall. More attention is devoted to the first seven articles that have provoked the most discussion over the past few years. The author argues that whilst the acceptance of the Directive constitutes a major step forward for Europe in the field of biotechnology, there are uncertainties regarding the scope of many of its provisions and the reasoning enshrined in some of the articles, notably Articles 3 and 5 are flawed. |