The draft Law on Patents and Utility Models contains exceptions which do not go beyond those allowed under Article 27 of the TRIPS Agreement. The exceptions provided by virtue of Articles 1 and 3 of the draft Law are:
a) Inventions, the prevention of the commercial exploitation, within the State of Bahrain, of which is necessary to protect public order or morality or to avoid serious damage to the environment.
b) Plants and animals, other than micro-organisms, and essentially biological processes for the production of plants or animals other than non-biological and microbiological processes.
c) Diagnostic, therapeutic and surgical methods for the treatment of humans or animals, excluding products used for such methods.
d) Scientific discoveries, theories and mathematical methods.
Plant varieties are to be protected by a Law on the Protection of New Plant Varieties which is available in a draft form.
As the draft Law has not yet been enacted, it is not possible at this stage to elaborate on how these exclusions are applied in legal or practical terms although almost all of them are self-explanatory.
