Recommended response for human cloning patent applications.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) should not follow the recent decision of the European Union to invalidate patents pertaining to human cloning technology. First, human cloning inventions are clearly patentable in the United States; not only do these inventions meet the statutory requirements of proper subject matter and utility, but they are also not precluded from satisfying the other requirements of novelty, nonobviousness, disclosure and enablement. Second, while human cloning technology undoubtedly requires regulation, patent law is not the proper forum or even an adequate one. While patent law is designed to reward inventors of desirable inventions, it is not in the position to regulate or prohibit the undesirable ones. In addition, the patent infringement immunity given to “medical activit[ies]” by section 616 of the Omnibus Consolidated Appropriations Act of 1996 (“Act”) should not be relied upon to prevent enforcement of human cloning patents. First, this legislation has been sharply criticized and should