Utility patents are granted to protect inventions

which are:

new, based on an inventive step and capable of exploitation in industry.

 

The following are not considered eligible for protection:

 

• 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.

 

 

Utility patents are furthermore 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;

 

• Methods.

 

Novelty:

 

The object of a utility patent 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 step:

 

An inventive step can be assumed, if the invention is not the result of purely craft skills.

 

Capability of exploitation in industry:

 

The object of a utility 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 registration of a utility patent:

 

The registration of a utility patent has the effect, that the holder alone is entitled to utilise the object of the utility patent. All third parties are forbidden, without the permission of the holder, to manufacture, offer for sale, bring into circulation or utilise any product covered by the utility patent, or likewise to import or possess such a product for any of the said purposes.

 

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.