Legislative Implementation of Flexibilities - North Macedonia

Title:	Articles 25 (2), (3) 1) and 5), (5) and 26 of the Law on Industrial Property No. 07-1006/1 of 12/02/2009
Field of IP:	Patents
Type of flexibility:	Patentability of substances existing in nature
Summary table:

Provisions of Law

Article 25

(2) If the requirements referred to in paragraph (1) of this Article are fulfilled, a patent shall also protect an invention that referred to:

- a product comprising of or containing biological material; and

- a method for obtaining biological material, for processing it or for using it.

(3) An invention shall not be considered as invention within the meaning of paragraphs (1) and (2) of this Article if it is:

1) a discovery, scientific theory and mathematic method;

5) human body in different stages of its formation and development or simple discovery of one of its elements, including a sequence or a partial sequence of a gene.

(5) Element which is isolated from the human body or produced by means of a technical process containing a sequence or a partial sequence of a gene may also be protected by a patent when the structure of that element is identical with the one of the natural element, whereby the industrial applicability must be contained in the description of invention included in the application form.

Exceptions to patentability

Article 26

A patent may not protect an invention:

- which relates to new animal types and plant varieties and clear biological procedures for creating animals and plants, with the exception of biotechnological inventions, for which the technical feasibility is not restricted to a certain type, and microbiological processes and products generated from such processes;