Jacques Warcoin, The Struggle Against the Patenting of a Gene

Overview
Appropriation of a living agent by means of a patent is the subject of a
debate which is characterised both by well-meaning intentions and by
lack of knowledge of the subject. The debate reached its climax in
France when the European Patent Office (EPO) granted Myriad, an
American company, a monopoly for genetic diagnosis of breast
cancer. Thanks to Jacques Warcoin, this patent was withdrawn in June
2004 by the EPO’s Opposition Division, to the satisfaction of those
who saw in this retraction the refusal to allow the appropriation of
living beings, objects or human genes. Jacques Warcoin shows that
this struggle had already been lost a long time ago. He analyses the
fundamental elements at stake in this affair which turned out to be
economic : the patent system, invented in the middle of the nineteenth
century to reward inventors, has been transformed into a formidable
weapon which companies have used for their own economic
strategies.