Title: | Section 1 (4) and (5) of the Consolidated Patent Act No.91 of 28/01/2009 |
Field of IP: | Patents |
Type of flexibility: | Exclusion from patentability of plants |
Summary table: |
1. (4) Patents shall not be granted in respect of plant or animal varieties. Patens may, however, be granted for inventions, the subject-matter of which is plants or animals if the technical feasibility of the invention is not confined to a particular plant or animal variety. In this Act a "plant variety" means a plant variety as defined in Article 5 of Council Regulation (EC) No. 2100/94 on Community plant variety rights.
(5) Patents shall not be granted in respect of essentially biological processes for the production of plants or animals. In this Act an "essentially biologically process" means a process consisting entirely of natural phenomena such as crossing or selection. Patents may, however, be granted for microbiological processes or other technical processes or products obtained by such processes. In this Act a "microbiological process" means a process involving microbiological material, performed on microbiological material or resulting in microbiological material.