The peculiarities of legal protection of inventions in the area of biotechnologies: The european experience

The authors researched the peculiarities of the legal protection of inventions in the field of biotechnologies based on the legislation of European countries and Ukraine. They determined the legal framework regarding the legal protection of biotechnologies at the international level. They identified the fundamentals related to the peculiarities of judicial control and protection of biotechnological inventions in the European countries (Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and Italy) and the resolution of these issues at the legislative level in Ukraine. Particular attention was put to the provisions of Directive 98/44/EC of the European Parliament and the Council on the legal protection of biotechnological inventions. One determined the content of the rules of the current patent legislation in Ukraine, which regulates the protection of biotechnological inventions, and highlighted the key aspects of the Agreement between Ukraine and the European Union in the context of the conducted research. The authors provided a systematic overview of the main requirements applied to the biotechnological innovations to determine their patentability. The main problematic aspects of the Directive 98/44/EC were highlighted based on the research findings. They lead to an ambiguous interpretation of the document's rules and the existence of considerable differences in the patent legislation available in the member countries of the European Union.