Legislative Implementation of Flexibilities - Poland
| Title: | Articles 28 (i), 29(1) (ii) and (2) and 931- 933 of the Industrial Property Law of 30/06/2000, as last amended by Act of 29/06/2007 |
| Field of IP: | Patents |
| Type of flexibility: | Patentability of substances existing in nature |
| Summary table: |  |
Provisions of Law
Article 28
The following in particular shall not be regarded as inventions within the meaning of Article 24:
(i) discoveries, scientific theories and mathematical methods,
Article 29
1. Patents shall not be granted for:
(ii) plant or animal varieties or essentially biological processes for the production of plants or animals; this provision does not apply to microbiological processes or the products thereof,
2. The process for the production of plants or animals, referred to in section (1)(ii), is essentially biological if it consists entirely of natural phenomena such as crossing or selection.
Article 931
Any reference in this Chapter:
(i) to "biotechnological invention" means the invention, within the meaning of Article 24, concerning a product consisting of or containing biological material, or a process by means of which biological material is produced, processed or used,
(ii) to "biological material" means any material containing genetic information and capable of reproducing itself or being reproduced in a biological system,
(iii) to "microbiological process" means any process involving or performed upon or resulting in microbiological material.
Article 932
1. The following, in particular, shall be considered as biological inventions eligible for patent protection:
(i) inventions, the subject of which is biological material which is isolated from its natural environment or produced by means of a technical process, even if it previously occurred in nature,
(ii) elements isolated from the human body or otherwise produced by means of a technical process, including the sequence or partial sequence of a gene, even if the structure of that element is identical to that of a natural element,
(iii) inventions which concern plants or animals, if the technical feasibility of the invention is not confined to a particular plant or animal variety.
2. The industrial application of a sequence or a partial sequence of a gene must be disclosed in the patent application.
Article 933
1. The human body, at the various stages of its formation and development, and the simple discovery of one of its elements, including the sequence or partial sequence of a gene, cannot constitute patentable inventions.
2. The following, in particular, shall be considered as biotechnological inventions, whose exploitation would be contrary to Public order or morality within the meaning of Article 29(1)(i), or with public morality:
(i) processes for cloning human beings,
(ii) processes for modifying the germ line genetic identity of human beings,
(iii) uses of human embryos for industrial or commercial purposes,
(iv) processes for modifying the genetic identity of animals which are likely to cause them suffering without any substantial medical benefit to man or animal, and also animals resulting from such processes.