!041394 A patent for designer sperm Sperm & patents? Look, I don't make this stuff up. Much of patenting drives technological progress, but every now and then, some patents make you wonder. Two US scientists have applied for a European patent for genetically engineered "designer sperm" that would allow a father to pass down only "healthy" genes to his children, according to an article in a recent issue of the New Scientist. According to the article, the patent has provoked outrage and concern on both sides of the Atlantic as it raised the specter of eugenics - using science to "improve" the human race to some subjective standard. It quoted an European Patent Office as saying this was the first attempt to patent a technique for human germ-line therapy - treatment to pass down altered genetic traits for generations. The two inventors, Ralph Brinster and Jim Zimmerman, of the University of Pennsylvania's veterinary school seek to patent a process to genetically modify the cells that become sperm. If anyone reading this can forward me details of the EPO patent, I will post them to the news service. I am sure if they win the patent, that men around the world will erect monuments in their honor. Greg Aharonian Internet Patent News Service