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World
Intellectual Property - IP Laws - Italy
New
law on biotech inventions:
Italy has
ratified Directive 98/44/EC which aimed at harmonizing the laws
of the member states to promote investment in the field of biotechnology
and avoid barriers to trade and introduced the new Directive 78/2006
in order to define what is patentable; compulsory licences; the
scope of protection of patents; the deposit, access and new deposit
of biological material.
The differences
with respect to the directive mostly tend to restrict its scope.
In fact, while the non-patentability of human embryos in the directive
is limited to cases of industrial or commercial purposes, in the
Italian law non-patentability is absolute and includes lines of
human embryonal stem cells. However, the new law adds among
the non-patentable inventions genetic screening protocols the use
of which could be discriminating or have eugenic and non-diagnostic
purposes.
The Law
78/2006 also determines the procedure for obtaining a patent and
perplexities arise as to the actual tasks of the Italian Patent
Office in assessing the patentability of requirements. Another
limitation introduced by the new law concerns the patentability
of elements isolated from the human body or otherwise produced and
of sequences or partial sequences of gene, where the industrial
applications must be not only be disclosed but specifically claimed
in the patent applications.
However,
the new law does not clarifies about the non-patentability of inventions
relating to new plant varieties, as the prohibition conflicts with
the Italian Code of Industrial Property.
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