Legal Protection of Embryonic Stem Cells under Patent Law Regime

Research and experimentation on embryonic stem cells has opened new horizons in different fields of medical science. The particular characteristic of these cells in its ability to produce different body cells has raised the hopes for treating a wide range of diseases and repairing damaged tissues. Alongside the progress in research and technology, a variety of legal challenges have also been posed in regard to production and application of embryonic stem cells as well as their protection. One of such challenges is how to provide legal protection of inventions on embryonic stem cells under patent law regime. Defining such cells and clarifying the benefits derived from R&D projects in this field, this Article tries to examine the status and circumstances of legal protection of inventions on embryonic stem cells and differentiation methods. This Article finds that if in vitro cells have similar or the same identification markers and characteristics as cells grown in the uterus do, they are not patentable. As regards stem cell differentiation methods, where the conditions and compositions used in such methods in laboratory are the results of the scientists’ research on fetal development, such that the differentiation method concerned is regarded as the implementation of natural processes, this method lacks inventive step since it does not add any inventive concept to prior art.