Information for Review of Art. 27.3(b) (Patentable Subject Matter) - View

Czech Republic

[Note by the Secretariat: the order and format of the Czech Republic's responses in IP/C/W/125/Add.8/Suppl.1 are different from the order in which the questions appear in documents IP/C/W/122 and IP/C/W/126. To facilitate the viewing of eTRIPS search results, the Secretariat has matched the Czech Republic's responses with the corresponding questions as originally numbered.]

List of Questions

Illustrative List of Questions Prepared by the Secretariat.

Yes. The Czech Republic is a member of the Budapest Treaty on the Deposit of Microorganisms of 1977. Special provisions are included in the Law on the Protection of Biotechnological Inventions No. 206/2000 Coll.

N.B. Please ensure that your responses to the questions above cover each category of subject matter specified in Article 27.3(b), namely micro-organisms, essentially biological processes for the production of plants or animals, microbiological processes, non-biological processes, plant varieties and other inventions concerning plants or animals.

n,d,u,spd d=distinctness; u=uniformity; s=stability; n=novelty; pd=proper denomination.

According to Section 2(b) of the Law No. 408/2000 Coll., "holder means the breeder who has been granted protective rights to the variety, or his successor in title". According to Section 2(c) of the Law No. 408/2000 Coll., "breeder means the natural or legal person, who bred, or discovered and improved a variety or the person for whom someone else created a variety as part of fulfilment of tasks in relation to an employment contract or another similar relationship, unless a written agreement stipulates otherwise; legal successor of the breeder shall also be considered as breeder".

According to Section 19, paragraph (9)(c) of the Law No. 408/2000 Coll., the exploitation of the propagation material performed for own use of a natural person shall not constitute a breach to the protective rights. Section 21 of the Law No. 408/2000 Coll. provides for a compulsory licence.

According to Section 23, paragraph (1) of the Law No. 408/2000 Coll., generally the duration of protection is 25 years; 30 years for protected varieties of trees, hops, vines and potatoes.

Representative Questions for TRIPS 27.3(b) Review Submitted by the Delegations of Canada, the European Union (formerly European Communities), Japan and the United States

Yes. According to Section 4, paragraph (b) of the Czech Patent Law No. 527/1990 Coll. as amended by the Law Amending some Laws on the Protection of the Industrial Property No. 116/2000 Coll., patents are not granted on plant and animal varieties and essentially biological processes for the production and improvement of plants and animals. This provision is based on the Article 53(b) of the European Patent Convention. The inventions concerning plants and animals as such provided that they meet basic requirements of patentability do not fall under the exclusion mentioned above. The application of patent practice in the Czech Republic does not dispose of any precedent of a patent claim which would explicitly cover a plant or an animal.

No. According to Section 4, paragraph (b) of the Czech Patent Law No. 527/1990 Coll. as amended by the Law Amending some Laws on the Protection of the Industrial Property No. 116/2000 Coll., patents are not granted on plant and animal varieties and essentially biological processes for the production and improvement of plants and animals. This provision is based on the Article 53(b) of the European Patent Convention. The inventions concerning plants and animals as such provided that they meet basic requirements of patentability do not fall under exclusion mentioned above. The application of patent practice in the Czech Republic does not dispose of any precedent of patent claim which would cover a plant or an animal.

Yes. According to Section 4, paragraph (a) of the Czech Patent Law, patents are not granted in respect of inventions the exploitation of which would be contrary to "ordre public" or morality.

There has not been such a case in implementing practice up to now.

There has not been such a case in our implementing practice up to now.

See the replies above.

No. According to Section 4, paragraph (b) of the Czech Patent Law No. 527/1990 Coll. as amended by the Law Amending some Laws on the Protection of the Industrial Property No. 116/2000 Coll., patents are not granted on plant and animal varieties and essentially biological processes for the production and improvement of plants and animals.

No. According to the Czech Patent Law No. 527/1990 Coll., patents are granted to inventions which are new, which involve an inventive step and are susceptible of industrial application. Discoveries are not patentable. (See Section (3), paragraphs 1) and 2) of the Czech Patent Law.) Section 2(a) of the Law on the Protection of Biotechnological Inventions No. 206/2000 Coll. reads: "Biotechnological inventions are patentable, if they concern biological material, which is isolated from its natural environment or produced by means of a technical process, even if it previously occurred in nature". Following Section 1(a) of the Law on the Protection of Biotechnological Inventions No. 206/2000 Coll., "biological material means any material containing genetic information and capable of reproducing itself or being reproduced in a biological system".

Yes

Yes

1991. Law No. 408/2000 Coll., on the protection of plant variety rights is based upon the 1991 Act of the UPOV, but the accession procedure has not yet finished.

No

Yes

No. The answer applies to certain agricultural crop plants.

Yes. In the case of question 10(c) above, the answer applies to farmers other than "small farmers".

[Answer B.10(c):  No. The answer applies to certain agricultural crop plants.]

Yes. According to Section 4, paragraph (1)(a) and (b) of the Law No. 408/2000 Coll., "the variety shall be deemed to satisfy the condition of novelty if, at the day of filing of the application for grant of protective rights the propagating material or material from the variety harvest has not been sold or otherwise disposed of to others by or with the consent of the breeder, for purposes of exploitation of the variety: (a) in the territory of the Czech Republic earlier than one year before the application has been filed, or (b) outside the Czech territory earlier than four years before the application has been filed or, in the case of trees or of vines, earlier than six years before the application has been filed".

No