Human cloning loophole closed

The original patent raised the possibility of human cloning

A patenting loophole which theoretically granted a legal right to clone humans has been closed, officials have announced.

The wording has been changed on a patent granted to Edinburgh University, UK, after complaints from several European governments.

The patent gave a right to alter the cells of mammals to create a "transgenic" animal but, accidentally, did not specifically exclude humans.

The error was not spotted when officials at the European Patent Office published the 22-page document.

But the office announced on Wednesday the document had now been revised, after a three-day hearing.

Mistake acknowledged

The patent was granted in 1999 to Edinburgh University, after its Centre for Genome Research developed a method for selecting stem cells, which can be used to clone animal tissue.

But a few months later, officials at the Munich-based office confirmed that they had mistakenly left the way open for human cloning.

Edinburgh University had no intention of using the technology for human cloning, but alarm was raised at the theoretical possibility which the patent allowed for.

Edinburgh University voluntarily revised the patent in April 2000, immediately after the mistake was pointed out.

However, officially correcting the error was not straightforward.

Regulations meant that the patent, once approved, could not simply be withdrawn or corrected.

Instead, the Patent Office had to wait until formal motions of complaint had been filed. The governments of Germany, Italy and the Netherlands were among those to issue the complaints.

Questions were also raised in the European Parliament.