Biotechnology And Patent Protection Scope

Biotechnology is a field of technology whose importance has grown considerably in recent years. It has provided the ability to isolate, recover, and create the simplest life forms. Because of its unique nature, biotechnology has "ruptured" the patent system, which has struggled to adjust the application of the system to this new technology, ranging from the distinction between a discovery and invention in patent law to the description of an invention. However, the most important issue is determining the patent's proper scope. Since scope determines the extent to which the patent holder may exclusively exploit or improve products and processes, scope determination decisively impacts the progress of biotechnology.Generally speaking, biotechnology has four characteristics. Firstly, it is a kind of strong moral-coloured technology. Secondly, it is Random, risky and unpredictable technology. Thirdly, it is Science-based technology. Finally, biotechnology is strongly influenced by public policy. As a matter of fact, the public policy decisions based on socio-economic grounds dominate the debate about patent scope and biotechnology. Meanwhile, there's a strong inconsistency in the interpretation of the biotechnology patent scope in courts of different jurisdiction. In addition, due to the special nature of biotechnology, the traditional doctrines of patent law are problematic in the interpretation. As far as China is concerned, providing over broad protection scope is not good for domestic biotechnology industry in that Chinese biotechnology industry hasn't developed very well. Nevertheless, granting too narrow protection scope may frustrate a large number of biotechnology companies, in particular foreign corporations. Therefore, China might well take account of its competition status in international technology arena when providing patent protection scope for biotechnology.