Comparative Jurisprudence of Patenting of Life Forms in India and The United States

Abstract

Patents are considered one of the traditional forms of intellectual property rights along with copyrights and trademarks. The doctrines of patentable subject matter, novelty, utility and non-obviousness as expounded in patent laws faced major challenges with the advent of new innovations such as information technology and biotechnology in the second half of the twentieth century. Biotechnology in particular faced larger questions in the sphere of morality and public policy before it could afford to obtain protection under intellectual property law as innovations thereunder pushed the barriers on what exactly constituted a patent. The judiciary and patent offices of different countries have responded differently in the last four decades to such developments. This paper attempts to look at the patentability criteria that has evolved over the last few decades in these jurisdictions and draws observations regarding the technical grounds employed by the patent offices and judicial forums to grant/reject patent applications dealing with life forms.