Bostyn, Sven J.R. --- "A Decade After the Birth of the Biotech Directive: Was it Worth the Trouble?" [2011] ELECD 979; in Arezzo, Emanuela; Ghidini, Gustavo (eds), "Biotechnology and Software Patent Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011)

Book Title: Biotechnology and Software Patent Law

Editor(s): Arezzo, Emanuela; Ghidini, Gustavo

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781849800402

Section: Chapter 9

Section Title: A Decade After the Birth of the Biotech Directive: Was it Worth the Trouble?

Author(s): Bostyn, Sven J.R.

Number of pages: 39

Extract:

9. A decade after the birth of the
biotech directive: was it worth the
trouble?
Sven J.R. Bostyn

INTRODUCTION

Directive 98/44/EC on the legal protection of biotechnological inven-
tions (hereinafter the biotech directive)1 passed the legislative process
somewhat more than a decade ago. This tenth anniversary of the biotech
directive in 2008 was celebrated, if at all, without pomp and circumstance;
to be more precise, it happened in absolute silence. The biotech direc-
tive, which has witnessed a lot of controversy and caused a considerable
amount of turmoil, was nothing that the European Union saw as a reason
for celebration or as a moment of retrospective reflection.
In what follows, we will analyse what has become of the directive and
whether it has indeed been worth the considerable trouble of passing it
through the legislative process. Whatever one may think, it cannot be
denied that the biotech directive has not been an unequivocal success.
This recent tenth anniversary of the biotech directive offers a good
opportunity to look back into the directive, and make an evaluation
of its strengths and weaknesses and its interpretation problems upon
implementation. What can be said from the outset is that the evaluation
will be of a mixed nature. The biotech directive is to be lauded for a
number of realizations, but must also be criticized for a number of other
provisions.
Maybe some had hopes higher than justified, not least the European
Commission itself, when the directive was created. One ...