The Relationship between Law and Biomedical Sciences in the Context of Article 53(a) of the European Patent Convention

Scientific progress has a growing influence on different fields of law. One of them is patent law, where scientific knowledge is highly important for making decisions on granting exclusive rights. In the European patent system, one of the most controversial issues in this regard is the application of Article 53(a) of the European Patent Convention, which provides that a patent shall not be granted for inventions for which commercial exploitation would be contrary to ordre public or morality. Article 53(a) is in particular relevant for biotechnological inventions for which patentability, in comparison to other technical fields, is more often disputed under this norm. A lack of consensus in the case law of the European Patent Office on the application of Article 53(a) to biotechnological inventions calls for finding an approach that would bring more clarity to this debate.