Implementing the Budapest Treaty: A Step Forward for Uruguayan Innovation

By Pittaluga Abogados

The Ministry of Industry, Energy and Mining (MIEM), through the National Directorate of Industrial Property (DNPI), and the Uruguay Innovation Hub co-hosted a seminar on the implementation of the Budapest Treaty on the International Recognition of the Deposit of Microorganisms for the Purposes of Patent Procedure.

In July, the Uruguayan Parliament approved the accession to the Budapest Treaty. Adopted in 1977, the Budapest Treaty concerns a specific topic in the international patent process: microorganisms.

The main feature of the Treaty is that a contracting State which allows or requires the deposit of microorganisms for the purposes of patent procedure must recognize, for such purposes, the deposit of a microorganism with any "international depositary authority", irrespective of whether such authority is on or outside the territory of the said State.

Disclosure of the invention is a requirement for the grant of patents. Normally, an invention is disclosed by means of a written description. Where an invention involves a microorganism or the use of a microorganism, disclosure is not possible in writing but can only be effected by the deposit, with a specialized institution, of a sample of the microorganism. In practice, the term “microorganism” is interpreted in a broad sense, covering biological material the deposit of which is necessary for the purposes of disclosure, in particular regarding inventions relating to the food and pharmaceutical fields.

It is in order to eliminate the need to deposit in each country in which protection is sought, that the Treaty provides that the deposit of a microorganism with any "international depositary authority" suffices for the purposes of patent procedure before the national patent offices of all of the contracting States and before any regional patent office (if such a regional office declares that it recognizes the effects of the Treaty).