Nature 407, 934 (26 October 2000), News
Germany gives green light to gene patents
QUIRIN SCHIERMEIER
[MUNICH] The German cabinet last week endorsed the patenting of human
genes, when it approved a European Union (EU) directive on the legal
protection of biotechnological inventions.
The move is a significant step towards the directive’s adoption across
Europe. It was approved at the European level in 1998 after almost ten
years of preparation, and is intended to harmonize biotechnology patents
in the EU (see Nature 388, 314; 1997). But ethicists and scientists still
object
