General Hospital Hair Removal Method, T383/03 2005
Citation: General Hospital Hair Removal Method, T383/03 2005
Rule of thumb: Can a patent be granted for new tools which improve the quality of surgery? No, innovations which improve the quality of surgery are excluded from patent protection by the legislator – even if they would meet all the criteria otherwise.
Judgment:
There are some new inventions that meet all the criteria for a patent, but are ‘excluded’ from being patentable by the legislator. The Court held that the hair removal method did not meet one of the exceptions and that this was patentable. The Court held that in considering patentability that the intention of the legislator was very important, ‘... the intention of the legislator was that only those treatments by therapy or surgery are excluded from patentability which are suitable for or potentially suitable for maintaining or restoring the health, the physical integrity and the physical well being of a human being or an animal and to prevent diseases’.
Warning: This is not professional legal advice. This is not professional legal education advice. Please obtain professional guidance before embarking on any legal course of action. This is just an interpretation of a Judgment by persons of legal insight & varying levels of legal specialism, experience & expertise. Please read the Judgment yourself and form your own interpretation of it with professional assistance.