Legislative Implementation of Flexibilities - Malta

Title:	Articles 4 (1), (2) (a) and (5) (b), (f) and (g) of the Patents and Designs Act, Chapter 417, of 01/06/2002 as last amended by Act XVIII of 2005
Field of IP:	Patents
Type of flexibility:	Patentability of substances existing in nature
Summary table:

Provisions of Law

4. (1) Inventions which are new, involve an inventive step and are susceptible of industrial applications, shall be patentable:

Provided that such inventions shall also be patentable even if they concern a product consisting of or containing biological material or a process by means of which biological material is produced, processed or used:

Provided further that biological material which is isolated from its natural environment or produced by means of a technical process may be subject of an invention if it previously occurred in nature.

(2) The following, in particular, shall not be regarded as inventions within the meaning of subarticle (1):

(a) discoveries, scientific theories and mathematical methods;

(5) A patent shall not be granted in respect of:

(b) 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:

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

(f) essentially biological process of the production of plants or animals:

Provided that this is without prejudice to the patentability of inventions which concern a microbiological or other technical process or a product obtained by means of such a process;

(g) DNA sequence not containing any technical information and in particular any indication of its function.