On Tuesday 18th October 2011, the Court of Justice of the European Union published it’s decision regarding the case of Brüstle v Greenpeace, declaring that a process which involves removal of a stem cell from a human embryo at the blastocyst stage, entailing the destruction of that embryo, cannot be patented. There is a widespread view that its effect has been to provide a significant bar to patentability in this area. In this event the true legal limits of the decision will be explored and its practical and ethical implications will be examined.
Institute of Brand and Innovation Law (IBIL) with the UCL Centre for Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine event
TITLE: Brüstle v Greenpeace: Has the European Court seriously damaged stem cell research?
DATE: Wednesday 1 February 2012
SPEAKERS:
- Dr Justin Turner QC, 3 New Square Chambers
- Professor Pete Coffey, UCL Centre for Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine
- Professor Jo Wolff, UCL Department of Philosophy
CHAIR: The Rt Hon Professor Sir Robin Jacob
TIME: 6 – 7.30pm
VENUE: UCL Faculty of Laws, Bentham House Endsleigh Gardens, London WC1G 0EG
COST: FREE for students
BOOK ONLINE: here
Programme:
- Registration in the Cissy Chu Common Room
- 18:00 Talk begins in Denys Holland Lecture Theatre
- 19:30 Reception in the Cissy Chu Common Room
About the speakers and chairman:
Sir Robin Jacob joined the UCL Faculty of Laws in May 2011 leaving the Court of Appeal of England and Wales to do so. Having read Natural Sciences at Cambridge, Sir Robin then read for the Bar (Grays Inn). He started practice at the Intellectual Property Bar in 1967. From 1976 to 1981 he was the Junior Counsel for the Comptroller of Patents and for all Government departments in intellectual property. He was made a Queen’s Counsel in 1981. His practice took him abroad often (Hong Kong, Singapore, Europe, USA, and Australia). He was appointed a High Court Judge (Chancery Division) in 1993. From 1997 to 2001 he was Supervising Chancery Judge for Birmingham, Bristol and Cardiff. He was appointed a Lord Justice of Appeal in October 2003. He was Treasurer of Grays Inn in 2007. He continues to sit from time to time in the Court of Appeal and will sometimes act as an arbitrator or mediator.
He has written extensively on all forms of intellectual property. He often lectures, mainly but not only on IP topics, both in the UK and abroad.
Professor Peter Coffey is Director of the London Project to Cure Blindness and is developing a human embryonic stem cell therapy to treat patients with age-related macular degeneration, in collaboration with Pfizer. Clinical trials are expected to start next year. Recently, Prof Pete Coffey has been awarded the inaugural New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF)-Robertson Prize in recognition of his pioneering work. He is also a recipient of a California Institute of Regenerative Medicine-Medical Research Council Disease Team Award to accelerate the pace of bringing stem cell therapy for age-related macular degeneration to the clinic, in collaboration with colleagues at the University of California Santa Barbara, USA.
Dr Justin Turner QC is a barrister at 3 New Square Chambers and his practice is concerned with all areas of intellectual property and other commercial disputes with a technical character. His technical background, in immunology, has resulted in the major part of his practice relating to pharmacology and biotechnology in which area he has acted in a number of leading cases. He recently represented Novartis in its successful challenge to the validity of McCafferty patent for phage display. He was instructed by GSK in various patent proceedings connected with paroxetine (SEROXAT) and by Human Genome Sciences in relation to its patent for the novel cytokine BLyS. He represented both Biogen and, more recently, Lundbeck before the House of Lords in the two leading cases on how the law of sufficiency impacts on breadth of claim. He was involved in a number of the leading cases on the obtaining of interim injunctive relief in patent proceedings. Justin Turner often appears in proceedings at the European Patent Office, representing Merck in its opposition to the patent asserted by Pfizer against VIOXX (T0812/00). More recently he represented WARF in its appeal to the Enlarged Board of Appeal of EPO concerning the patentability of embryonic stem cells (G2/06) and Centocor in its opposition to Bayer’s patent relating to antibodies to TNF alpha (T0601/05). Justin Turner has a particular interest in misuse of confidential information having represented SmithKline Beecham when it asserted confidential information in the genetic code of a production strain of Streptomyces clavuligerus. He also represented LIFFE, the derivatives exchange, in a claim for misuse of confidential information in a trading system for credit default swaps. He was recently instructed to defend allegations of misuse of confidential information against Smith & Nephew brought by Convatec in relation to a cellulose-based wound dressing.
Jonathan Wolff is a Professor in the UCL Philosophy Department and Director of the Centre for Philosophy, Justice and Health. He is a member of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics and on the Advisory Council of Demos. His research and teaching intersts are in political philosophy, Marx and Ethics. His current research is looking at the question of how abstract theories of distributive justice can be used to inform public decision making.
