Japanese patent law will be revised soon to grant patents to advanced medical
technologies related to regenerative medicine and gene
therapy
Under the current Japanese patent law, medicine
or medical equipment may be granted a patent. However,
patent rights have not traditionally applied to medical
activities. More specifically, according to the draft
report submitted by a special committee formed by the
Japanese government in October 2002, "methods for treatment
of the human body by surgery or therapy and diagnostic
methods practiced on human cannot be granted a patent."
After
considerable discussions with regard to the necessity of
revising the current Japanese patent law and the examination
guideline, the Japanese patent System Subcommittee finally
approved in early June 2003 the aforementioned report on an
amendment to the current patent law. Please
click
here to read the details of the report in PDF format
released on the Japan Patent Office Web site.
