Environmental risks in biotech patent disputes: which role for ordre public before the European patent office

Nowadays, biotechnologies are among the most interesting areas of science. Their development, fostered by intellectual property (IP) rights' protection, leads to useful progress. Nonetheless, when, as with biotech inventions, environmental protection is at stake, this progress is not without controversy. The present contribution aims at examining the interferences between IP and environmental protection, as emerging in the framework of the European Patent Convention. To this extent, it will focus on the function and on the limits of the ordre public exception clause, with the purpose of suggesting a new role for science in disputes for revocation of biotech patents.