ossesses the exclusive right to make, use, and sell the invention for a seventeen year period. The subject matter of the patent is all important: the European approach to patent law only recognizes processes if they are technical in nature, meaning related to some sort of industry. This approach therefore denies patentability to "methods of treatment of the human or animal body by surgery or therapy and diagnostic methods practiced on the human or animal body." On the other hand, most countries following the European approach allow the patenting of microorganisms. While the U.S. has always recognized the patentability of processes, regardless of whether or not they are "technical" in character, it did not recognize the patentability of living organisms until the Chakrabarty decision of 1980.
A patent may be granted for any new, useful, and nonobvious composition of matter, or article of manufacture, machine, or process. Because "products of nature" lack novelty they are unpatentable; new organisms must have "markedly different characteristics from any found in nature and the potential for significant utility." Under this language, however, a patent may be granted in the case where a researcher simply found a way to cause certain cells to grow outside of the human body, giving the cells a substantial utility not found in nature. In another example, the entire genetic material of a single cell would be unpatentable, but an isolated gene encoding a protein would be patentable.
Another source of property interest or rights is the law of trade secrets. While many consider trade secrets to be intangible property, others consider them to be information subject to restrictions on disclosure and use, arising out of contracts and agreements or relationships of trust and confidence protected by statute. In the typical case, the originator of the subject agrees to let subsequent researchers use the subject materials as long as they do not...