ICT Implants and Brain-Computer Interfaces: Legal Issues in the EU Framework

Abstract

The paper examines the problem of the patentability of medical and nonmedical human enhancement technologies (hereinafter HETs) from an internal, communitarian and international law perspective.

After having carried out a brief reconnaissance of the taxonomy of the different types of ICT and BCI implants, the study goes on with the identification of the cardinal points that will guide the research in its subsequent developments, pointing out which reference ethical substratum is human rights, rather that religion or politics.

It will then develop the examination of the patentability of HETs devices, drawing a distinction between medical and non-medical ones, in light of the TRIPs Agreement (Art. 27), of the Communitarian discipline and of the Italian IPC, formulating working hypotheses about the principle of lawfulness that integrate the innovative perspective human-rights based with the principles of public order and morality, as well as with the principle of human dignity more recently added by the Italian legislator in the regulation of biotechnological inventions.

Keywords: Artificial intelligence; Patents; Human enhancement; HETs; ICT implants; BCI implants; Morality; Public Order; Human dignity; Human rights