Patents are granted for inventions which are:

new, based upon inventive activity and capable of exploitation in industry.

 

The following are not considered patentable:

 

• Discoveries, scientific theories and mathematical models;

 

• Aesthetic designs;

 

• Plans, rules and methods for intellectual activities, for games and business activities, as well as programs for data processing systems;

 

• Reproductions of information.

 

 

Patents are similarly not granted for:

 

• Inventions whose publication or utilisation would be contrary to public policy, such contravention cannot however be assumed solely from the fact that the utilisation of the invention is forbidden by law or other administrative regulations;

 

• Plant or animal species, as well as essentially biological methods for the cultivation of plant species or the rearing of animal species;

 

• Methods for surgical or therapeutic treatment of the human body or that of other animals, as well as methods of diagnosis.

 

Novelty:

 

An invention is considered new, if it does not belong to the current state of the art. The state of the art comprises all knowledge which has been made accessible to the public by way of written or oral description, by way of utilisation anywhere in the world, or in any other way before the date governing the rank of the application (date of application or priority date).

 

• it is demanded that the invention be a worldwide novelty

 

Inventive activity:

 

An invention is based on inventive activity, if it is not to be derived in obvious fashion from the state of the art for an expert in the corresponding technical branch.

 

• it is a significant level of invention which is demanded

 

Capability of exploitation in industry:

 

The object of a patent is considered capable of exploitation in industry, if it can be produced or used in any field of industry, including, for example, agriculture and forestry.

 

Effect of the invention:

 

The patent has the effect, that the patent holder alone is entitled to utilise the patented invention. All third parties are forbidden to utilise the invention commercially without the permission of the patent holder.

 

Representative:

 

Persons who are not resident and also have no offices in the country must nominate a locally appointed patent lawyer or legal counsel to handle the application on their behalf.