The Andean Manual for Patent Examination

By Espinosa Bellido Abogados

The Andean Community presented its Manual for Patent Examination, a very useful tool in the process of protecting innovations in the Andean Community countries: Peru, Bolivia, Colombia and Ecuador.

The document was prepared by the General Secretariat of the Andean Community. It is a 400-page manual based on the Community’s Decision 486 -Common Regime on Industrial Property- that includes the practices of the national patent offices and the rulings of the Court of Justice of the Community, both on procedural and substantive aspects.

Among other things, Decision 486 states that Member Countries shall grant patents for inventions, whether goods or processes, in all areas of technology, that are new, involve an inventive step, and are industrially applicable. The following are not be considered inventions:

-discoveries, scientific theories, and mathematical methods;
-any living thing, either complete or partial, as found in nature, natural biological processes, and biological material, as existing in nature, or able to be separated, including the genome or germ plasm of any living thing;
-literary and artistic works or any other aesthetic creation protected by copyright;
-plans, rules, and methods for the pursuit of intellectual activities, playing of games, or economic and business activities;
-computer programs and software, as such;
-and, methods for presenting information.

The new manual looks to unify formalities and substantive requirements for filing patent applications and for granting patents between countries. It covers revisions in examination procedures, procedural aspects in the filing, formality examination, publication, granting and post-grant of patents, the registration of utility model and industrial designs.