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Patents for plants and genes under the European Patent Convention

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 December 2011

Noel Byrne
Noel Byrne
Affiliation:
Intellectual Property Law Unit, Centre for Commercial Law Studies, Queen Mary & Westfield College, University of London, U.K.
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Synopsis

The cost of patenting an invention should be incurred only where the patent is likely to give the inventor an economic or a tactical advantage. Where it is practicable, secrecy may be preferable to patenting. If an advantage from patenting can be envisaged, then in Western Europe the inventor can apply either for a European patent under the European Patent Convention or for a national patent. The inventor in plant biotechnology faces a ban on patenting certain inventions, including plant varieties and essentially biological processes for the production of plants. But since this ban is interpreted strictly, there are opportunities for patenting what at first glance might seem not patentable. A patent application must give a written description of the invention that is complete enough for a skilled person to reproduce it. The inventor may be required to supplement the description in a patent specification for a biotechnological invention, by depositing a sample of relevant biological materials. A European patent is treated as a national patent in the country for which it was granted. Since a patent may be invalidated in enforcement proceedings, patenting may turn out to have been a costly mistake.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Section B: Biological Sciences , Volume 99 , Issue 3-4: Opportunities and Problems in Plant Biotechnology , 1992 , pp. 141 - 152
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1992

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References

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