Sir

Volker Vossius

Contrary to what Kent, Scott-Ram and Thomas say (Nature 386, 641; 1997), European patent law does not exclude “biological materials derived from ‘essentially microbiological processes’”. The European patent law, in its unfortunate language in Article 53 (b) EPC, expressly confirms the patentability of “microbiological processes or the products thereof”.

Nick Scott-Ram

Scott-Ram replies — The sentence should have referred to “biological processes”. The point that we were trying to make, and which still stands, is that one cannot “make use of a microbiological process in obtaining plants or animals only in order to be able to patent them”.