Patents should be granted only for genetic tests, not for genes and DNA sequences, a working party from the European Society of Human Genetics (ESHG) and EuroGentest, a European Union-funded initiative to improve genetic testing in Europe, said at a press conference on Thursday (April 24) according to Medical News Today.

The recommendations are the result of a four-year investigation and a series of workshops involving the ESHG's Public and Professional Policy Committee (PPPC) and the Patenting and Licensing Committee (PLC), in consultation with a large number of scientists, ethicists, lawyers, and technology transfer specialists.

"Nowadays, identifying new genes is very obvious, and all the methods are well-established, so it should not be patentable anymore," Ségolène Aymé, a medical geneticist at the French National Institute for Health and Medical Research in Paris and head of the PPPC, told The Scientist. "What is patentable is the inventive process — if you can describe how to use a gene for a specific purpose — but not the gene itself."

The ESHG group is calling for new models for licensing within existing patent legislation, rather than a complete overhaul of the genetic intellectual property protection system. Their recommendations will now be taken to the European Patent Commission and the European Parliament.

Aymé said the European Patent Commission hurt the research environment by granting a number of patents for genetic claims that were too broad. "Most of the problems come from patents granted for bad reasons," she said. The PPPC is urging better training for genetic patent reviewers and the use of a scientific advisory committee to evaluate the scope of patent claims.

"The main debate now is not if genes should be patented or not, but rather are we stopping inventions because too many patents are preventing researchers from getting licenses," said Aymé.

The PPPC's recommendations are published in the May issue of the European Journal of Human Genetics.