Edited by GRAIN

February, 1998

History: Panama's legal framework is Law No. 35 of May 1996 Enacting Provisions on Industrial Property, with effect as of November 1996.

Membership: WIPO, Paris

Administration: The Directorate General of the Industrial Property Registry of the Ministry of Commerce (DIGERPI)

Provisions until now: Panamanian law excludes from patentability inventions contrary to national laws, health, public policy, morality and public order. Further, the law also excludes: ? essentially biological means of breeding or propagating plants, animals or varieties or breeds thereof insofar as DIGERPI considers them a violation of morality or the integrity or dignity of mankind ? plant species and animal species and breeds ? biological material as encountered in nature ? live materials that forms part of the human body ? plant varieties

This is probably the broadest range of exclusions related to life forms found in any country's patent law. Transgenic microorganisms are clearly patentable.

Opposition possibility: Third parties may comment on the novelty of a patent application prior to grant.

SOURCES - Alan Jacobs (ed.), Patents Throughout the World, Clark, Boardman & Callaghan, New York, Release #37, April 1991. - Panama: Law No. 35 of May 10, 1996, Enacting Provisions on Industrial Property, in Industrial Property and Copyright, WIPO, Geneva, January 1997.