Rabbit skin patent refused

An appeals board of the European Patent Office has upheld the refusal of a patent for "rabbit skin comprising biological active substance and its use" on public policy grounds. And, having read the first claim, I heartily approve; more than that, I am appalled not only that the application was ever filed (it was an international application seeking a European patent, by a Chinese pharmaceutical company) but that the invention was even devised. Claim 1 is just ghastly.

Article 53 (a) EPC tells us that European patents will not be granted in respect of (the draftsman must have been paid by the word, otherwise why not just "for"?) inventions the exploitation of which would be contrary to ordre publique or morality. (Note that it's the exploitation of the invention that has to be considered, not the invention itself, or the rights and wrongs of giving it patent protection) The applicant argued that in Decision T19/90, which I would have recognised more easily had the Board referred to it as Onco-Mouse, the suffering of the unfortunate animal had to be weighed against usefulness to mankind, a point reinforced by the EPO's examination guidelines (GII- 4.1) .

Unfortunately the Guidelines and the Board's decision fall into saying "ordre publique and morality", which is probably acceptable of the word "and" is construed disjunctively - but why on earth depart from the clear wording of the Convention? It is plain that the two concepts are independent, and the fact that the guidelines mention anti-personnel mines as an example seems to me to reinforce the distinction. Anyway, it appears clear enough that the Article does not intend that ordre publique and morality be cumulative requirements. But which was engaged in the present case? That isn't clear. The Board, and the Onco-Mouse board before it, seem to have treated ordre publique and morality as synonymous, which I don't think can be correct. Both decisions go on to balance the suffering of animals against the invention's usefulness to mankind - which is appropriate if ordre publique is being considered, because there are competing public policy goals involved, but surely not if you are considering morality, which has to be absolute.

In the end the Board came to what I think (as if anyone cares what I think) is the right decision, albeit perhaps not for the right reason. Its view was that the invention lacked the degree of usefulness needed to outweigh the suffering its exploitation would cause, because while it was the only way to produce the product, there were other products that do the same job. But I do wish it could have got there more directly.