Exclusions from Patentability with an Emphasis on Biotechnological Inventions: A Comparative Study

摘要

Through a comparative legal study among United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Egypt, and Syria, in addition to a review of certain international agreements, this article addresses exclusions in inventions. These exclusions are divided into two parts: the traditional exclusions, which cover all types of inventions regardless of their topic, such as discoveries, scientific theories, and mathematical methods; and the special exclusions, in particular plants and animals because they belong to everyone and no one may monopolize them exclusively and prevent others from benefiting from them. Moreover, biological methods for producing plants and animals are also excluded. In addition, human-related inventions-mainly organs, tissues, cells, natural biological materials, DNA, and genomes-are excluded from patentability. The reason for this exclusion is because these inventions make the human body a mere resource through which various biotechnology applications are used to obtain patents that are commercially exploited to serve the interests of biotechnology companies and developed countries.