International Handbook on Regulating Nanotechnologies

The European Directive of 6 July 1998 on the legal protection of biotechnology inventions excludes the human embryo of the mechanism of the patent. A patent is filed in Germany on purified brain stem cells. German Federal Patent Court cancels the patent, because it would be on the human being. The one who filed the patent appeals, arguing that a text that refuses the patentability of the embryo is not about stem cells. Asked for a preliminary ruling by the National Court, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) delivers, in a Grand Chamber a judgment on October, 18 2011, asking that the Directive by designating the human embryo has designated the mechanisms of cell division. This extensive conception leaves a possible place for the stem cells. They can therefore be also excluded from patentability.