Legislative Implementation of Flexibilities - Sweden

Title:	Articles 1 1), 1a (2) and (3), and 1b of the Patents Act No. 837 of 01/12/1967 as last amended by Law No. 161 of 01/04/2004
Field of IP:	Patents
Type of flexibility:	Patentability of substances existing in nature
Summary table:

Provisions of Law

1. Anyone who has made an invention that is susceptible of industrial application, or anyone to whom the rights of the inventor have been assigned, may, pursuant to Chapters 1 to 10 of this Act, be granted a patent for the invention in Sweden and thereby acquire an exclusive right to exploit the invention commercially. Provisions concerning European patents are included in Chapter 11.

As an invention shall never be considered what is solely

1. a discovery, scientific theory or mathematical method,

1a. (2) Patents are not granted for essentially biological processes for the production of plants or animals. As an essentially biological process for the production of plants or animals shall be considered any process which in its entirety consists of natural phenomena such as crossing or selection. A patent may, however, be granted for an invention that concerns a microbiological process or another technical process or a product made by means of such a process. As a microbiological process shall be considered any process which is performed on microbiological material or through which such material is used or is produced.

(3) An invention may be patentable even if it concerns a product which consists of, or contains, biological material or a process through which biological material is produced, processed or used. A biological material which is isolated from its natural environment, or which is produced by means of a technical process, may be the subject of an invention even if it previously occurred in nature. Biological material comprises material that contains genetic information and which is itself capable of reproduction or which may be reproduced in a biological system.

1b. The human body at the various stages of its formation and development as well as the simple discovery of one of its elements, including the sequence of a gene or a partial sequence of a gene, can not constitute a patentable invention.

An isolated element of the human body or an element otherwise produced by means of a technical process, including the sequence of a gene or a partial sequence of a gene, may constitute a patentable invention, even if the structure of that element is identical with that of a natural element.