My paper topic...

My topic was intellectual property surrounding human embryonic stem cell research. So maybe this is cheating a little bit, but I ran across some pretty interesting stuff while doing research for my paper. There's such a huge difference between Europe and the United States when it comes to stem cell patentability and, particularly, the ethics surrounding each patent offices positions. The united states basically just relies on precedence for determining whether or not they should allow patents in this field- "case law"-type history drives the majority of the decisions made in the US. However, the EPO takes a much different approach in that they predominantly refer to their choices as a matter of ethics. More interestingly, the end result in what is patentable and what is not is really not that different in either patent offices' jurisdiction. Below are two links describing US and EUR stem cell patent positions:

http://www.ncsl.org/programs/health/genetics/charts.htm

http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/law/StemCellProject/project.report.pdf

On the legislative front, things get even more complicated as most statesin the US, and countries in Europe, have their own unique positions on appropriate laws which regulate this field. Here in north america, the individual states usually have guiding criteria that help steer the legality in the correct moral direction such as source of origin, how long the cells have been allowed to divide, etc. While technically the federal law may allow companies and institutions residing in these states to be granted patents in these areas, it becomes hard to do so if you can't work with them in the first place.

http://www.nature.com/nbt/journal/v25/n4/full/nbt0407-419.html

Dave