Transgenic cell patent granted “in error”

The European Patent Office in Munich, Germany, has admitted a mistake in recently granting a patent to a process that could potentially lead to the cloning of humans. Last week the environmental group Greenpeace issued a critical statement that was followed by a storm of public protest.

The patent EP 0695351 on the “isolation, selection, and propagation of animal transgenic stem cells” originally belonged to Edinburgh University and …