NCCR
International
Trade
NCCR IP9 WORKSHOP
17th May 2006
Scope of Patent Rights
By
Aida Dolotbaeva
NCCR
International
Trade
World Trade Institute
Joint Center of the Universities of
Berne, Fribourg and Neuchâtel
Hallerstrasse 6
3012 Berne, Switzerland
www.nccr-trade.org
www.wti.org
Tel. +41 31 631 30 80
Fax +41 31 631 36 30
[email protected]
Issues
• Scope of protection for biotechnological
inventions;
• The scope and nature of the research/
experimental use exemption;
• Is there any need to introduce farmer’s
privilege into Patent Law?
NCCR
International
Trade
World Trade Institute
Joint Center of the Universities of
Berne, Fribourg and Neuchâtel
Hallerstrasse 6
3012 Berne, Switzerland
www.nccr-trade.org
www.wti.org
Tel. +41 31 631 30 80
Fax +41 31 631 36 30
[email protected]
Scope of protection for biotechnological
inventions
EU Directive 98/44/EC
•
Article 8(1): “The protection conferred by a patent on a biological material
possessing specific characteristics as a result of the invention shall extent to
any biological material derived from that biological material through
propagation or multiplication in an identical or divergent form and possessing
those same characteristics”;
•
Article 8(2): The protection conferred by a patent on a process that enables a
biological material to be produced possessing specific characteristics as a
result of the invention shall extend to biological material directly obtained
through that process and to any other biological material derived from the
directly obtained biological material through propagation or multiplication in
an identical or divergent form and possessing those same characteristics.
•
Article 9: “The protection conferred by a patent on a product containing or
consisting of genetic information shall extend to all material, save as provided
in Article 5(1), in which the product is incorporated and in which the genetic
information is contained and performs its function.”
NCCR
International
Trade
World Trade Institute
Joint Center of the Universities of
Berne, Fribourg and Neuchâtel
Hallerstrasse 6
3012 Berne, Switzerland
www.nccr-trade.org
www.wti.org
Tel. +41 31 631 30 80
Fax +41 31 631 36 30
[email protected]
Scope of protection for biotechnological
inventions
• Is such an ‘expansion’ of patent rights
justified?
• Is a minimal functional effect within the
new host sufficient to extend the patent
rights? What should be the contribution of
the function in the next generation?
• When should the patent right be
‘exhausted’? Where should protection end?
NCCR
International
Trade
World Trade Institute
Joint Center of the Universities of
Berne, Fribourg and Neuchâtel
Hallerstrasse 6
3012 Berne, Switzerland
www.nccr-trade.org
www.wti.org
Tel. +41 31 631 30 80
Fax +41 31 631 36 30
[email protected]
The scope and nature of the research/
experimental use exemption
• Different countries have different scope of the research
exemption.
• There have been calls for the clarification of
research/experimental use exemption.
• Do we need research exemption in the field of
biotechnology?
- to solve the issues of dependency, i.e. patent thicket and
“tragedy of the anti- commons” (Heller and
Eisenberg,1998)?
- to allow experimentation to discover new functions of
the patented DNA?
• In relation to plant, should there be an equivalent research
exemption under patent law as provided for by the sui
generis system of protection of plant varieties?
NCCR
International
Trade
World Trade Institute
Joint Center of the Universities of
Berne, Fribourg and Neuchâtel
Hallerstrasse 6
3012 Berne, Switzerland
www.nccr-trade.org
www.wti.org
Tel. +41 31 631 30 80
Fax +41 31 631 36 30
[email protected]
Is there any need to introduce farmer’s
privilege into Patent Law?
• To what extend do we need harmonization of the
patent system and PVP in relation to the farmer’s
privilege?
• In what forum should that harmonization be
undertaken?
• What are the implications for farmers in
developing countries which are highly dependent
on seed-saving?
NCCR
International
Trade
World Trade Institute
Joint Center of the Universities of
Berne, Fribourg and Neuchâtel
Hallerstrasse 6
3012 Berne, Switzerland
www.nccr-trade.org
www.wti.org
Tel. +41 31 631 30 80
Fax +41 31 631 36 30
[email protected]
Thank You
Thank You for your attention.