Legislative Implementation of Flexibilities - Oman

Title:	Sections 2 (1) (e) of the and 11 (2) (c) and (d) and (4) (b) of the Law on Industrial Property Rights, Royal Decree No. 67 of the 2008
Field of IP:	Patents
Type of flexibility:	Exclusion from patentability of plants
Summary table:

Provisions of Law

Section 2

(1) The following shall be excluded from patent protection:

(e) Animals other than micro-organisms, and essentially biological processes for the production of animals and their parts, other than non-biological and microbiological processes;

Section 11

(2) For the purposes of this Act, “exploiting” a patented invention means any of the following acts:

(c) when the patent has been granted in respect of a plant or plant variety:

(i) producing or reproducing (multiplying);

(ii) conditioning for the purpose of propagation;

(iii) offering for sale;

(iv) selling or other marketing;

(v) exporting;

(vi) importing;

(vii) stocking for any of the purposes mentioned in (i) to (vi), above;

(d) The provisions of paragraph (c) shall also apply in relation to

(i) varieties which are essentially derived from the protected variety, where the protected variety is not itself an essentially derived variety,

(ii) varieties which are not clearly distinguishable from the protected variety and

(iii) varieties whose production requires the repeated use of the protected variety.

(iv) a variety shall be deemed to be essentially derived from another variety (“the initial variety”) when:

- it is predominantly derived from the initial variety, or from a variety that is itself predominantly derived from the initial variety, while retaining the expression of the essential characteristics that result from the genotype or combination of genotypes of the initial variety;

- it is clearly distinguishable from the initial variety; and

- except for the differences which result from the act of derivation, it conforms to the initial variety in the expression of the essential characteristics that result from the genotype or combination of genotypes of the initial variety.

(4)

(b) With respect of patents granted for plants and plant varieties, the rights under those patents shall not extend to:

(i) acts done privately and for non-commercial purposes;

(ii) acts done for experimental purposes; and

(iii) acts done for the purpose of breeding other varieties, including essentially derived varieties;

(iv) within reasonable limits and subject to the safeguarding of the legitimate interests of the patent owner, any acts practiced by farmers to use for propagating purposes, on their own holdings, the product of the harvest which they have obtained by planting, on their own holdings, the patented variety or an essentially derived variety.