China's Patent Law specifies in Article 5 that no patent shall be granted to an invention or creation that violates state law, social morality or jeopardizes public **** interests, even if it is patentable. The Chinese Patent Law stipulates in Article 25 the objects of inventions or discoveries for which patents will not be granted. Such objects *** there are five:
I. Scientific Discovery
Scientific discovery refers to people through observation, analysis and research, revealing what objectively already exists but people have not yet known or recognized. Because scientific discovery and scientific principles can not be directly materialized into products, and at the same time can not be discovered because of these laws and principles of nature and exclude other people have long enjoyed the right to use these laws and principles of nature.
II. Rules and Methods of Intellectual Activity
The rules and methods of intellectual activity guide people in thinking, reasoning, analyzing and judging, and are characterized by intellect and abstraction. It includes calculation methods, production and business management methods, vehicle scheduling methods, competition rules, game programs, learning language methods, accounting system, education methods, teaching methods, classification methods, methods of information retrieval, dictionary compilation method, etc., can not obtain patent protection.
Computer program can be considered a mathematical method or information representation, with intellectual and abstract characteristics, can not obtain patent protection. But when the computer program software is combined with hardware, which can be interpreted as the application of the idea to practice, patent protection can be obtained.
Third, the diagnosis and treatment methods of diseases
The said diseases include human and animal diseases. The method of diagnosis and treatment of such diseases, which is practiced on human beings and animals, cannot be applied industrially, so it is also not an invention referred to in the Patent Law.
Medical devices such as instruments, apparatus, devices, kits, etc. used in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases, as well as pharmaceutical uses involving indications are industrially applicable, and so are eligible for patent protection, as are ordinary products.
Four, animal and plant species
Animals and plants are living objects that grow naturally and are not the product of people's creation. However, biological materials (such as bacteria, yeast, viruses, vectors, plasmids, animal and plant cell lines, etc.) do not belong to the category of animals and plants. Patent protection is available for biomaterials themselves and for inventions involving biomaterials.
In addition, methods for producing animals and plants may also be eligible for patent protection when other corresponding provisions are met.
V. Substances Obtained by Nuclear Transformation Methods
Substances obtained by nuclear transformation methods refer to elements or compounds obtained by nuclear fission or nuclear fusion methods. Not only is the substance obtained by the atomic nuclear transformation method not patentable, but also the method of obtaining such substance is not patentable.