Patent Protection On Gene Sequence & Related Legal Problems

The gene technique started in the 1950s. In the 70s, some developed countries started to pay attention to the legal problems. The gene sequence patent protection became the key topic of the most contentious problems.In fact, the gene sequence is only the discovery of existing matters; it shouldn't have acquired the patent protection. However, with the close relationship between the interests of the industrial group and the patent system, all the countries ignored the difference of invent & discovery in practice, instead of paying more attention to the patent control standard for practicability & creativity. As well, on the control of patent examine standard, all the countries lower their standard in varying degrees, and increase the protection range of gene patent to protect more on the gene results. This stimulates the country's biological technology development.Gene Sequence Patent Protection bring a lot of new challenges to the patent system, such as whether the Discovery can become the object of the Patent; how to solve the moral problems caused by the human body gene patent; how the human body gene providers share the benefits from the gene patent; how the developing countries face the problem of their gene sources plundered by the developed countries, etc.Our country started to realize the gene's legal protection from 1990s. In Oct. 2001, the newly issued "Patent ControlGuide" clearly defines the patent protection to gene sequence. The protection range and level is almost the same as the international standard. This is also a necessity under the new situation when China joins WTO. Today, the first problem we are facing is how to protect our abundant gene resources. This has a bearing on our country's biological technique, or even on the future economic development. In this side, the "Temporary Management on Human Body Genetic Resources" plays a certain role on the standardization.Liu Liqun (International Law) Directed by He Ningsheng...