THE PATENTING OF INVENTIONS IN THE FIELD OF FOOD AND BIOTECHNOLOGY

Inventions in the field of food and biotechnology qualify for patent protection if they are new involve an inventive step and are susceptible to industrial application. Food inventions such as dairy products icecream juices and tofu involving conventional techniques do not pose particular problems. Problems may however arise if such inventions enter the field of biotechnology involving biotechnical methods and materials. Typical examples of biotechnical materials are DNA sequences vectors viruses microorganisms and cell lines such as hybridomas. Further examples are processes using e.g. a microorganism or cell line and the products obtained thereby. The main difficulty in biotechnology resides in establishing that the requirements for patentability i.e. adequate (“enabling”) disclosure novelty and inventive step have been complied with. The organizers of this Conference on Food and Biotechnology have asked me to give you an introduction to patent protection in this field. I will try to do so. My simplified introduction applies only to the German Patent Law and the European Patent Convention. © 1990, Taylor & Francis Group LLC. All rights reserved.