There are limitations on the enjoyment of patent rights. Section 10(1) of the Patents Act provides that anything which consists of the following characteristics shall be excluded from patentability
(a) discovery, scientific theory or mathematical method;
(b) a scheme, rule or method for doing business, performing a mental act of playing a game; and;
(c) methods for the treatment of the human or animal body by surgery or therapy as well as diagnostic methods practiced on the human or animal body.
Additionally, section 10 subsection 3 of the Patents Act provides that a patent shall not be granted in respect of an invention if the commercial exploitation of the invention in Saint Christopher and Nevis would be contrary to public order or morality. The section goes on to provide in subsection 4 that the refusal to grant such a patent would not be based solely on the ground that the commercial exploitation is prohibited by a law in force in Saint Christopher and Nevis. The language seems to imply that the basic threshold that would be looked at would be the law but leaves it open as to other considerations that might influence the decision to deny the patent.
Section 10 subsection (1) paragraph (c) - cited earlier, provides that anything that consists of methods for the treatment of the human or animal body by surgery, therapy in addition to diagnostic methods that are practiced on either human or animal, shall be excluded from patentability. However, subsection 2 under the same section shows restricts the exclusion only to the methods and does not extend the bar to the products that might be used in any of those methods.
