Search Results

1. Artificial insemination (AI)

   Category: Themes/Themes
   Artificial insemination (AI) is the most important reproduction biotechnology for genetic improvement in domestic animals. Progeny or sib testing based on AI is a prerequisite for an accurate estimation ...

2. Latest News

   Category: News/Latest News
   ... Breeding and Reproduction were discussed: Social Responsibility and Competitiveness, Diversity and Distinctiveness; Biotechnology, Genetics and Reproduction; Knowledge base - biotechnology, genetics and ...

3. Animal Cloning

   Category: About us/Activities
   Opinion to European Group on Ethics Opinion to European Food Safety Authority Letter to President European Commission Opinion article in Nature Biotechnology Related documents 2007 Voskamp at cloning ...

4. Aquaculture

   Category: Breeding is..../Sustainable Breeding Scenarios
   ... and biotechnologies Few lines per species Monosexing/sterilisation by triploidy Cloning Multitrait selection Few lines per species Monosexing/sterilisation by triploidy Cloning  ...

5. Does the directive permit the patenting of life?

   Category: Themes/Q and A
   ... be respected. The directive does not extend patent protection for biotechnological inventions beyond the principal rules of patent law; its main role is to bring long overdue uniformity to the existing ...

6. What limits should be placed on patenting interventions on the genotype?

   Category: Themes/Q and A
   ... opportunities would be missed for using biotechnology to develop new treatments for cancer and other diseases that continue to cause considerable suffering and to kill. A society with needs and problems, ...

7. How is biotechnology controlled?

   Category: Themes/Q and A
   Biotechnology is closely controlled. It does not take place in a legal vacuum. At European and national levels laws and guidelines provide a framework of strict obligations within which biotechnology ...

8. Is the biotech directive in conflict with the biodiversity convention?

   Category: Themes/Q and A
   ... into humans. Demand for human transplant organs is huge and increasing, whereas the supply is stagnant at a low level. Only biotechnology can help remedy this. Other techniques of genetic modification ...

9. Is a patent on a DNA marker possible?

   Category: Themes/Q and A
   ... the protection of biotechnological inventions, being essentially biological processes for the production of animals (article 4.1.b and article 2.2). However, introgression may be used to move a gene inserted ...

10. Does the directive give special advantages to biotechnology inventions?

    Category: Themes/Q and A
    No, on the contrary. The patent directive for biotechnological inventions is a provision that, once implemented also at the national levels, enables these inventions to follow the same rules of patentability ...

11. Does modern biotechnology really help patients?

    Category: Themes/Q and A
    In many cases it is only biotechnology, which can make therapy possible at all. It offers patients safe treatments, vaccines with fewer side effects, and more rapid and sensitive diagnostics. And it holds ...

12. Why is the directive needed?

    Category: Themes/Q and A
    In the EU there was 30 year old patent law that did not fit into the new developments in biotechnology and hampered both innovation and openness in research in Europe. A new directive would finetune the ...

13. Why are there product patents as well as process patents?

    Category: Themes/Q and A
    ...  If patents were to be awarded only for biotechnology processes and not for biotechnology products (excluding from patentability subject matter such as human genes and DNA sequences), this would be a discrimination ...

14. What can patents on biotechnological processes mean for farm animal breeding?

    Category: Themes/Q and A
    ... less intramuscular fat. As the first generation of patents with a real impact in the animal biotechnology field, such patents have sometimes caused concern in the animal selection sector. The owners of ...

15. Are there risks for human health and the environment because of biotechnology?

    Category: Themes/Q and A
    No. The directive is fully consistent with the Convention. The Parliament and the Commission legal services have carefully looked at this question, and both have stated that the rules for biotech patenting ...

16. Become a member

    Category: Membership/Membership
    ... research programmes on Agriculture, Fisheries and Biotechnology on a regular basis Information on EU programmes and their possibilities on a regular basis EFFAB position papers and publications The EFFAB ...

17. Themes

    Category: Themes/Themes
    ThemesPatentsPatent Watch Q and A Ethics Biodiversity Biotechnology Technology Transfer Welfare Scenarios Consumer  ...

18. Biotechnology

    Category: Themes/Themes
    Biotechnologies can be defined as technologies intended to change the biological functioning of animals, plants or micro-organisms. Within animal production, the aim may be to change: 1. What the animals ...

19. Scenarios

    Category: Themes/Themes
    ... market, technological, biotechnological, animal welfare, management, political, economical, legal and societal developments may force animal production systems to change. In order to be able to consider ...

20. Patent Directive Workshop

    Category: Projects/Finished Projects
    On 29 May 1998, core specialists in patenting and animal breeding have discussed the EU directive for biotechnological inventions. To read the proceedings of this workshop click here  ...