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Legislative Implementation of Flexibilities - Ireland

Title:Sections 9 (2)(a) and 10 (1) (b) of the Patent Act No. 1 of 1992 as last amended by Act no. 31 of 2006 and the European Communities (Legal Protection of Biotechnological Inventions) Regulations of 2000
Field of IP:Patents
Type of flexibility:Patentability of substances existing in nature
Summary table:PDF

Provisions of Law

9 (2) Any of the following in particular shall not be regarded as an invention within the meaning of subsection (1):

(a) a discovery, a scientific theory or a mathematical method,

10 (1) A patent shall not be granted in respect of

(b) a plant or animal variety or an essentially biological process for the production of plants or animals other than a microbiological process or the products thereof;

Sections 4 and 5 of the European Communities (Legal Protection of Biotechnological Inventions) Regulations of 2000

4. (1) An invention that complies with section 9(1) of the Act of 1992 is patentable even if it concerns a product consisting of or containing biological material or a process by means of which biological material is produced, processed or used.

(2) Biotechnological inventions shall be patentable, in particular, if they concern

(a) biological material which is isolated from its natural environment or produced by means of a technical process even if it previously occurred in nature,

(b) plants or animals if the technical feasibility of the invention is not confined to a particular plant or animal variety, or

(c) a microbiological or other technical process, or a product obtained by means of such a process other than a plant or animal variety.

5. (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, shall not be patentable.

(2) 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.

(3) If an invention concerns the sequence or partial sequence of a gene the industrial application thereof shall be disclosed in the patent application as filed.

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