Patenting inventions in the field of biology and chemistry: German and European patent law and case law

Patent law is intended to provide protection for new and inventive achievements in technology. Technical progress is considered to be the purpose and aim of patent law. The main objective of patent law is to protect patentable results according to the latest state of science and research. It is most important to encourage the inventor to completely publish his knowledge. As a reward for this the inventor is granted a right of exclusion which is limited in time: the patent. It is not the purpose of patent law to enrich mere theory but to create industrially applicable knowledge for the public. This contribution deals with important problems to be considered by inventors in the patenting of inventions in the field of biology and chemistry. Such questions are related particularly to the accessibility of inventions and discoveries to patent protection, the various kinds (categories) of patents, the requirement of novelty, complete disclosure of the invention, patentability of DNA sequences and proteins, as well as inventive step.