Patenting the non-human animal

Megan Young-Schlee

Chapter 88 in Elgar Concise Encyclopedia of Animal Law, 2025, pp 338-340 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: US patent law allows for patenting novel non-human animals that have ‘markedly different characteristics from any found in nature’. Patents have been issued on organisms like bacteria, oysters, and, famously, mice. European law also allows patenting non-human animals but requires a utilitarian moral analysis that the invention is more useful than harmful. Proponents of animal patenting argue that it incentivizes invention, and those inventions have a direct beneficial impact on human life through science and research. Opponents are concerned about blurring the line between human and animal, the suffering invented creatures will experience, and the impact creating novel creatures will have on the natural world.

Keywords: Patents; Transgenic; Invention; Biotechnology; Nature; Patentable subject matter (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781803923666
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