Pursuant to articles 4 and 5 of the Act, the following cannot be patented:
a) Discoveries, scientific theories and mathematical methods.
b) Literary or artistic works or any other aesthetic creation, as well as scientific works.
c) Schemes, rules and methods for performing mental acts, playing games or doing business, and programs for computers.
d) Methods of presenting information.
e) Surgical or therapeutic treatment methods for humans or animals, or diagnosis methods applied to humans or animals. However, the products, especially the substances and the compositions and the inventions of apparatus or instruments for the implementation of said methods will be patentable.
f) Inventions whose publication or use would be contrary to public order or good practice.
g) Processes for cloning human beings.
h) Processes for modifying the germ line genetic identity of human beings.
i) Uses of human embryos for industrial or commercial purposes.
j) Processes for modifying the genetic identity of animals which are likely to cause them suffering without any substantial benefit to man or animal, and the animals resulting from said processes.
k) Plant or animal varieties. However, inventions whose subject matter is plant or animal based will be patentable if the technical feasibility of the invention is not limited to a specific plant variety or animal race.
l) Essentially biological processes for the production of plants or animals. In this case, essentially biological processes are those that consist entirely of natural phenomena, such as crossbreeding or selection.
m) The human body, at the various stages of its formation and development, and the simple discovery of one of its elements, including the sequence or partial sequence of a gene.
Section l) does not affect the patentability of inventions designed for a microbiologic process or any other technical process or a product obtained from said processes.
In relation to section m), an element isolated from the human body or otherwise produced by a technical process, including the sequence or partial sequence of a gene, may constitute a patentable invention, even if the structure of that element is identical to that of a natural element.
The industrial application of a sequence or partial sequence of a gene must be disclosed in the patent application.
Literary and artistic works and any other works of an intellectual nature may be deposited at the Intellectual Property Registry.
