True costs of patents - a new Greenpeace study

Greenpeace research shows that over 100 patents on genes of humans and animals were granted in 2003, our new paper published today in Berlin outlines their economic and environmental impact.

The consequences of patents are considerable: medical and diagnostic testing costs explode, as a result doctors are being hindered in their work and research is being effected. These the results are outlined in our research paper 'The true costs of patents' that Greenpeace Germany together with the catholic aid organisation Misereor and the German Doctors Association Bundesärztekammer are presenting in Berlin today.

Greenpeace, Misereor and the Bundesärztekammer reject the implementation of the EU patent directive into German law, currently planed by the German parliament.

"With broad reaching monopoly style patents, single companies profit off the back of society," says our patent expert Christoph Then. "Doctors, patient, farmers and breeders fall into a network of new dependencies."

The cases documented in the research show how the patent law is abused systematically. The patentees multiply the costs for the investigation of blood tests, forbid the employment of better test procedures and force laboratories to stop their research.

"The legal minister wants to intersperse gene patents at any price, completely ignoring the ethical and economic consequences. Our study shows that we must all pay the bill," warned Then.

More Information

- Read the research paper: The True Cost of Gene Patents

- Find out more about Patents on Life

- For more information about the implications of the new EU labelling and traceability rules read this.

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