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| The Amended Korean Patent Examination Guideline for Medical Inventions (effective from January 1, 2008) |
Please be advised that the Korean Intellectual Property Office has amended the Korean patent
examination guideline for medical inventions to expand an range of allowable patent. The feature of
this amendment is to allow as a patent a method for diagnosis of a human disease.
Until the present, the guideline had considered an invention for diagnosis of a human disease as
being lack of industrial applicability, by reason that the medical treatment for a human body had
been construed not to belong to the domain of industry referred in the Korean patent act. However,
the guidelines has not accommodated the growth of medical industry and hence it was required to
be amended within limits of the public interest.
According to the amended guideline, method for diagnosis of a human is patentable,
if the method does not include a step of affecting the human body directly and non
-temporarily, or if the method does not include a step of determining the human body clinically.
The clinical determination means mental activity for determining a disease or health condition based on medical knowledge or experience.
Below are examples of allowable medical inventions under the amended guideline, which were not allowed before:
- Method for detecting cancer marker through antibody-antigen reaction from patient's sample
in order to offer information required to diagnose large intestine cancer
- Method for detecting albumin from urine to diagnose kidney disease
- Method for arrangement of electrode for measuring electrocardiogram
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