Govt finalising norms for gene patents

NEW DELHI: Biotech firms can now hope to possess genes if they undertake inventive research and make it useful for the industry. This would prevent others from using the same biological material for commercial purposes for 20 years from the date of filing the patent.

The government is currently preparing guidelines to deal with the complex issue of patenting gene sequences.

Sources told ET that these units of hereditary information can be patented only if the claim satisfies three criteria — it should be an inventive step, it must be non-obvious to a person skilled in the art and it should be capable of industrial application.

The isolation and purification of a particular gene, satisfying these three criteria, will give a person or company exclusive rights.

The three requirements ensure the patented biological material was not originally part of nature. The same would apply to patenting micro-organisms.

Since patent applications for genes could run into thousands of pages, the government will allow electronic filing, the sources said.

Patenting genetic sequences has immense implications in biotech drug development as it is these units which signal the production of specific proteins that affect the functioning of the body. Many biotech drugs, like human insulin, are just proteins.

Sources said the guidelines would take lessons from case laws in other countries to the extent that they fit into our patent law.