Transgenics Added To Brazil Patent Law

Brazil's Chancellor, Luis Felipe Lampreira, has added an extra clause to the country's proposed new patent legislation, providing for the one-time patenting of transgenic micro-organisms. This is not covered by the agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights.

However, the Chancellor commented that nobody can guarantee when the new law would be approved, and this is a problem, he said. During April, the Senate's Constitutional and Justice Commission twice postponed a vote on the legislation, even though the country's President, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, assured US President Bill Clinton, during a visit to the USA, that the passage of an intellectual property law that would satisfy US requirements was close.