[Bioartificiality thresholds: oscillations of genetic patenting]

The legal interpretations that both patent offices and courts in the US and in Europe have applied to biotechnological inventions seem to go back an forth in defining to what extent DNA sequences can be patented. This process has given rise to the creation of different thresholds of bioartificiality, and to the blurring of boundaries between what can and cannot be patented. The different legal rules established in both systems during the last decade have been also oscillating between increased international harmonization and concern for the internal regulatory framework.