The European Union assured the legal protection
of innovation in the area of biotechnology with Directive
98/44/EC on the legal protection of biotechnological
inventions. The Directive established harmonised standards in
order to foster the innovative potential and competitiveness of
science and industry in the Union. The Directive sets out which
inventions involving plants, animals or the human body may or
may not be patented. It requires the Member States to allow the
patenting, under certain conditions, of inventions which may
have an industrial application. The Commission is currently
pursuing infringement proceedings against nine Member States
for their failure to transpose the Directive into national law
by the 30 July 2000 deadline.