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TRANSGENIC ANIMALS TO BE PATENTABLE UNDER REVISED PATENT EXAMINATION GUIDELINE FOR BIOTECHNOLOGY IN S.KOREA
Revision effective from March 1, 1998
The Korean Industrial Property Office (KIPO) is scheduled to allow animal inventions which are practically unpatentable under the current patent law to be granted a patent if they meet certain requirements by amending the Patent Examination Guidelines for Biotechnology.
Under the new guidelines, patents will be awarded to transgenic animals which are considered to have industrial applicability and can be reproduced based on a specification by a person skilled in the art.
Despite the allowance of animal patents, replicated animals of no industrial applicability will still be excluded from the category of patentability.
In addition, according to the revision, animal inventions may not be granted a patent if they fall under any of the following:
-animal invention which is likely to destroy the ecosystem; -animal invention which is likely to cause environment contamination; -animal invention which is likely to do harm to human beings; -animal invention which is likely to provoke aversion; and -animal invention which is likely to involve extreme abuse of animals
compared to potential benefits to human beings gained therefrom.
Ahuja's World Patent & Trademark News Vol.1 No.2, April 1998, p.10