Advocate General Cruz Villalon published his Opinion today in
Case C‑364/13 International Stem Cell Corporation v Comptroller General of Patents, a reference to the Court of Justice of the European Community from the Patents Court, England and Wales, of the following question:
‘Are unfertilised human ova whose division and further development have been stimulated by parthenogenesis, and which, in contrast to fertilised ova, contain only pluripotent cells and are incapable of developing into human beings, included in the term “human embryos” in Article 6(2)(c) of Directive 98/44 on the Legal Protection of Biotechnological Inventions?’
Says the Advocate General, in his advice to the CJEU:
"Unfertilised human ova whose division and further development have been stimulated by parthenogenesis are not included in the term ‘human embryos’ in Article 6(2)(c) of Directive 98/44 ... on the legal protection of biotechnological inventions as long as they are not capable of developing into a human being and have not been genetically manipulated to acquire such a capacity".
The IPKat will soon be hosting a more analytical guest post by biotewch wiz Shohta Ueno, but he thought that interested readers should at least know that the 80-paragraph Opinion is now available online.
