ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AND PATENT LAW

The paper deals with the issues of environmental protection and climate change as confronted by the contemporary Intellectual Property (IP) law system, and in particular by the patent system. While patent law possesses certain tools to deny protection to inventions, which can be harmful to the environment (e.g., art. 53(a) of the European Patent Convention, art. 27(2) of the TRIPS Agreement), in practice they are being used very rarely. At the same time, the patent system is directly involved in the development and diffusion of environmentally friendly inventions. The paper analyses the level of attention given to IP rights and to transfer of environmentally sound technologies within international negotiations. The contribution advocates for a more effective consideration of global environmental problems by the patent systems (on the international and national levels) as well as for a more successful integration of the IP issues into international environmental treaties.