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Legislative Implementation of Flexibilities - Iceland

Title:Articles 1 (2.1), (5) and (6) and 1a of the Patents Act No. 17/1991 as last amended by Law no. 167/2007
Field of IP:Patents
Type of flexibility:Patentability of substances existing in nature
Summary table:PDF

Provisions of Law

Article 1

(2) The principal innovations which are not considered to be inventions are those which concern exclusively:

1. a discovery, scientific theory or mathematical method;

(5) A patent shall not be granted on an essentially biological process for producing plants or animals. By an essentially biological process, this Act refers to a method that on the whole is based on natural phenomena such as crossing and selection. Nonetheless, patents may be granted for processes in the field of microbiology or other technical methods or the products of such processes. Process in the field of microbiology refers to any method that exploits microbiological material or produces microbiological material.

(6) An invention may be patentable even though it involves a product consisting of or containing biological material, or pertains to a method for producing, processing or using biological material. Biological material which has been isolated from nature or produced by a technical process may be considered an invention, even if it is found in nature. In this Act, biological material refers to material containing genetic information and capable of reproducing itself or being reproduced in a biological system.]

Article 1 a

The human body in its various stages of formation or development and the mere discovery of any of its elements, such as nucleotide sequences or partial nucleotide sequences of genes, cannot be considered patentable inventions.

Notwithstanding Paragraph 1, an element of the human body, including a nucleotide sequence or partial nucleotide sequence of a gene, which is isolated from the body or produced in another way by a technical process may be considered a patentable invention even if the structure of such an element is identical to the structure of a natural element.