What next for stem cell research?

When, in the course of case G2/06 (the WARF application), the Enlarged Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office (EPO) was invited to seek the assistance of the Court of Justice (the court) in construing Article 6 of the Biotechnology Directive, it must have come as no surprise to observers that it declined this invitation. The enlarged board was not persuaded by the potential awkwardness of the court subsequently reaching an alternative view as to the patentability of embryonic stem cell lines.