Section 1
(2) Patents shall be granted for inventions within the terms of subsection (1) even if the subject matter concerns a product consisting of or containing biological material or a process by means of which biological material is produced, processed or used. Biological material that has been isolated from its natural environment or produced by means of a technical process may be the subject matter of an invention even if it had previously occurred in nature.
(3) In particular, the following shall not be regarded as inventions within the terms of subsection (1):
1. discoveries, scientific theories and mathematical methods;
Section 1a
(1) The human body at its various stages of formation and development, including germ cells, and the simple discovery of one of its elements, including the sequence or partial sequence of a gene, cannot constitute a patentable invention.
(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) The industrial application of a sequence or a partial sequence of a gene shall have to be specifically disclosed in the application by indicating the function fulfilled by the sequence or partial sequence.
(4) Where the subject matter of an invention is a sequence or a partial sequence of a gene, the structure of which is identical to the structure of a natural sequence or partial sequence of a human gene, the use thereof, for which industrial application is specifically described in subsection (3), shall have to be included in the patent claim.
Section 2a
(2) Patents can be granted for inventions
2. having as subject matter a microbiological or other technical process or a product obtained by means of such a process, unless a plant or animal variety is concerned.
Section la(3) shall apply mutatis mutandis.
(3) In accordance with this Act:
1. "biological material" shall denote any material containing genetic information and capable of reproducing itself or being reproducible in a biological system;
2. "microbiological process" shall denote any process involving the use of or intervention in microbiological material or by which microbiological material results;
3. "an essentially biological process" shall denote any process for breeding plants or animals based entirely on natural phenomena such as crossing or selection;