Biotech Patents
August 8, 2011
Biotechnological Patents, Chemical Sciences Patents, Diagnostics Patents, Genetic Engineering Patents, Medical Sciences Patents, Microbiological Sciences Patents
The biotechnological patent will afford patent monopolies to inventors who have invested in new or better solutions to existing problems.
The patent system stimulates innovation, as competitors advance the field. Biotech patents have been instrumental in fostering advances in technology.
All inventions must be novel, inventive and useful in order to be eligible for patent protection.
Biotechnological or life sciences inventions are no exception and it is the manner in which these requirements are addressed that can curb or extend the biotech patent protection you acquire.
Certain sections of the patent legislation deal specifically with inventions relating to biological processes.
Only inventions and not discoveries are eligible for biotech patent protection. (an invention goes further than a discovery, as it provides a practical application of the discovery.)
Isolated DNA sequences and other metabolites are usually viewed in patent terms as chemical compounds, much like a new organic drug molecule.
The unique sequence of the nucleotides or amino acids that you have uncovered constitutes a novel biological molecule and may thus be patentable.
Vectors containing your nucleotide sequence and cells containing the vector / DNA may also be patented, provided they are new.
Microbiological Sciences Patents
The South African patent law provides specifically for the patenting of microbiological processes.This includes genetically modified organisms.
New microbes that you have isolated, purified and cultured are generally considered patentable, provided they can fulfill the usefulness patent requirements.
Diagnostics Patents
Primers used for diagnostic purposes and kits containing such primers may be protected by way of patents.
Single nucleotide polymorphisms and expressed sequence tags may under certain strict conditions be considered patentable and of use in diagnostics.
Novel antigens and receptors that you have located may also be protected by way of a patent, provided you have ascribed a function to them.
Novel monoclonal antibodies and immunological tests, such as ELISA tests, using novel antibodies are also worthy of biotechnological patent protection.
Pharmaceutical & Chemical Sciences Patents
Novel purified chemical or pharmaceutical compounds are patentable, as well as their pharmaceutically acceptable isomers and salts.
Crude extracts in which a compound is enriched may also be patentable, depending on the level of enrichment relative to the natural, unfractionated state. Importantly, novel pharmaceutical carriers may also be patented.
Patent protection may also be obtained for pharmaceutical compositions containing your novel pharmaceutical compound.
Medical Sciences Patents
Due to the medical patent restriction on methods of treatment, diagnosis or surgery, surgical techniques are specifically excluded from patent protection in these regions.
Instruments for use in surgery, diagnosis or therapy may be patented.
Plant & Animal Sciences Patents
You cannot obtain biotechnological patent protection for plant or animal varieties, or essentially biological processes for the production of plants or animals.
It appears from the European Biotech Directive and the UK Patent Office practice manual that patent claims to genetically modified plants are allowable in a biotechnological patent application.
Should you have originated a new plant variety by conventional breeding, this may be protected by way of a Plant Breeders’ Rights application in South Africa, and not a patent.
Biotech patent claims to animals obtained by traditional breeding methods are not allowable at most Patent Offices, but a genetically modified animal is considered patentable in the UK, Europe and USA.
There is currently no equivalent in the animal sciences field to the protection offered by Plant Breeders’ Rights.
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