ANALYSIS ON PATENTING OF LIFE FORMS

ABSTRACT:

Patenting of life forms is not restricted to plants and animals. It ranges from microbes to
human beings.. A life form can be anything from a virus or plant to a human being. In India
there was no patent protection for invention relating to life forms before 2002 amendment. A
life form is not patentable as it occurs in nature as there would be no inventive step. Article
27 of TRIPS discusses about the accepted international norms on patentability of the
inventions. It states that any product or process shall be patentable if that product or process
involves an inventive step, has industrial application and is new. The requirement of novelty,
inventive step and industrial application must be met for the invention to be patentable in
India. Patents are the most suitable way of protecting biotechnological inventions.
Biotechnology includes any technique that uses living organisms or parts of organisms to
create or modify products, to improve plants or animals, or to develop microorganisms for
specific purpose. This paper focuses on the importance of patents in the field of
biotechnology and evolution of biotechnology patent law in US, EU and India which covers
the areas of patenting of transgenic plants, patenting of higher life forms, patenting of human
cells and genetic material and patenting of biotechnological processes. Any invention will be
eligible for a patent grant only if it satisfies the patentability requirements i.e., patentable
subject matter, utility/ industrial application, novelty, non-obviousness/ inventive step and
written description. This paper gives an overview of principles underlying patentability of
biotechnological inventions in US, Europe and India.