Budapest treaty

1. BUDAPEST TREATY
SUCHITRA BAI
PATENTS DEPARTMENT
ALTACIT GLOBAL
CHENNAI

2. WHAT IS THE BUDAPEST TREATY?
This is an international convention governing the
recognition of deposits in officially approved culture
collections for the purpose of patent applications in
any country that is a party to it. Because of the
difficulties and on occasion of virtual impossibility of
reproducing a microorganism from a description of it
in a patent specification, it is essential to deposit a
strain in a culture collection centre for testing and
examination by others.

3. BUDAPEST TREATY
•The Budapest Treaty on the International Recognition of the Deposit of
Microorganisms for the Purpose of Patent Procedure, signed on April 28, 1977, was
amended on September 26, 1980. The Budapest Treaty eliminates the need to
deposit microorganisms in each country where patent protection is sought.
•Under the treaty, the deposit of a microorganism with an "international depositary
authority" satisfies the deposit requirements of treaty members' national patent
laws. An "international depositary authority" is capable of storing biological material
and has established procedures that assure compliance with the Budapest Treaty.
Such procedures include requirements that the deposit will remain available for the
life of the patent and that samples will be furnished only to those persons or entities
entitled to receive them.
•The establishment of "international depositary authorities" offers several advantages
to both patent applicants and contracting states. Patent applicants benefit because
the need to deposit in many countries in which they seek patent protection is
dramatically reduced. Since a single deposit in any "international depositary
authority" will satisfy the national disclosure requirements of any member state,
patent applicants' costs are much lower. Using a single authority as a deposit
increases the deposit's security, and provides a mechanism of distribution of the
deposit. Contracting states benefit because they can rely on the treaty's uniform
standards to assure effective deposit and public availability. They no longer need to
independently establish a 'recognized' depositary to meet national patentability
disclosure requirements.

4. WHAT IS THE SYSTEM FOR PROTECTING
MICROBIOLOGICAL INVENTIONS AND
MICROORGANISMS?
The Indian Patent Act has no specific provision for patenting
of microorganisms and microbiological processes. However,
as a matter of practice microorganisms per se are not
patentable in India. In order to meet the obligation under
TRIPS. India is required to introduce a patenting of
microorganisms. Draft laws in this regards have been
formulated. It may, however, be noted that many countries
allow both process and product patents in regard to
microbiological inventions and microorganism per se. All
such countries allow patenting of genetically modified
microorganisms but a few also allow patenting of naturally
occurring microorganisms if isolated from nature for the first
time and if other conditions of patentability are satisfied.

5. MICROORGANISMS TYPES

6. ARE THERE ANY DIFFERENCES IN THE FILING OF PATENT
APPLICATIONS IN RESPECT OF MICROBIOLOGICAL
INVENTIONS AND OTHER INVENTIONS?
•An inventor is required to deposit the strain of a
microorganism in a recognized depository which
assigns a registration number to the deposited
microorganism. This number needs to be quoted in
the patent application. Obviously a strain of
microorganism is required to be deposited before
filing a patent application. It may be observed that
this mechanism obviates the need of describing a
microorganism in the patent application. Further,
samples of strains can be obtained from the
depository for further working on the patent. There
are many international depositories in many
countries, which are recognized under the Budapest
Treaty.

7. TRIPS AGREEMENT
•Article 27 paragraph 3 (b) of the TRIPS Agreement, stipulates
that IP protection be extended to microorganisms, non-biological
and micro-biological processes and plant varieties.
•If the applicant mentions biological material in the invention and
it is not possible to describe the same in the complete
specification, requirement of sufficiency of disclosure can be
completed by depositing such material in an International
Depository Authority under the Budapest Treaty. The same shall
be deposited not later than the date of filing, however, the
reference number to the deposit shall be made in the
specification within 3 months from the date of filing the
application.
•The complete specification shall contain the details of such
deposition and the source and geographical origin of the
biological material.

8. INTERNATIONAL DEPOSITORY
AUTHORITIES
•is a scientific institution, typically a culture collection which is capable of
storing microorganisms.
•The Microbial Type Culture Collection and Gene Bank (MTCC), a national
facility established in 1986 is funded jointly by the
Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and the
Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Government of India. The
MTCC is a modern facility housed at the
Institute of Microbial Technology (IMTECH), Chandigarh. It is an affiliate
member of the World Federation for Culture Collections (WFCC) and is
registered with the World Data Centre for Microorganisms (WDCM,
registeration number 773).The main objectives of this national facility are to
act as a depository, to supply authentic microbial cultures and to provide
related services to the scientists working in research institutions, universities
and industries.
•The MTCC was recognized by the
World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Geneva, Switzerland as an
International Depository Authority (IDA) on 4 October, 2002, thus becoming
the first IDA in India, seventh in Asia and thirty-fourth in the world. The
deposit of microorganisms under the Budapest Treaty is recognized to fulfill
the requirement of patent procedure in 55 member countries.

9. Contd…

•Presently, the MTCC has five sections, the Actinomycetes,
Bacteria, Fungi, Yeasts and Plasmids and collectively holding over
nine thousand cultures. The fungi are also preserved under
mineral oil. Special properties like production of metabolites,
degradation of specific compounds are not normally checked.
•The MTCC scientists are actively involved in the research
programmes relating to microbial diversity, ecology and
taxonomy using both classical and molecular approaches.

10. WHY DOES ONE NEED TO
DEPOSIT MICROORGANISMS?
•Patenting of inventions involving microorganisms poses a
unique problem.
•Description alone, regardless how elaborate it may be, is
usually not sufficient enough to ensure repeatability due to
inherent properties of living organisms as such and the
microorganisms in particular. The reasons may be one or
more of the following:
a) description of a microorganism isolated from soil or any
other ecological niche can never be complete, although
some properties/features can be documented.
b) ensuring isolation of the same strain from an ecological
niche is difficult and
c) an exactly identical genetic change (mutation) and
selection of a desired strain of microorganism is extremely
difficult to repeat

11. THANK YOU