OCTROOIRECHT
Uit het Perscommuniqué: "The case before the High Court of Justice (England and Wales) involves a dispute between International Stem Cell Corporation (ISCO) and the United Kingdom Intellectual Property Office regarding the patentability of processes covering the use of parthenogenetically-activated human ova. The High Court asks the Court whether the concept of ‘human embryo’, as interpreted in the judgment in Brüstle, is limited to organisms capable of commencing the process of development which leads to a human being. In that regard, the High Court of Justice explains that, according to current scientific knowledge, organisms such as those which are the subject of the applications for patent registration are not capable of developing into a human being.
In today’s judgment, the Court holds that, in order to be classified as a ‘human embryo’, a non-fertilised human ovum must necessarily have the inherent capacity of developing into a human being. Consequently, the mere fact that a parthenogenetically-activated human ovum commences a process of development is not sufficient for it to be regarded as a ‘human embryo’.
By contrast, where such an ovum does have the inherent capacity of developing into a human being, it should be treated in the same way as a fertilised human ovum, at all stages of its development. In that regard, it is for the High Court of Justice to determine whether or not, in the light of knowledge which is sufficiently tried and tested by international medical science, the organisms which are the subject of ISCO’s applications for registration have the inherent capacity of developing into a human being.
Lees het arrest hier. De full tekst doorzoekbare pdf volgt.