Section 1: Exclusive right of exploitation

The exclusive right of exploitation mentioned in Article L. 611-1 takes effect as from the filing of the application.

The scope of protection conferred by the patent is determined by the claims. However, the description and drawings serve to interpret the claims. If the subject matter of the patent relates to a process, the protection conferred by the patent extends to the products obtained directly by that process.

The scope of a claim covering a gene sequence is limited to the part of that sequence directly related to the specific function concretely set out in the description. The rights created by the grant of a patent including a gene sequence may not be invoked against a subsequent claim covering the same sequence if that claim itself satisfies the conditions of Article L. 611-18 and that it sets out…

Subject to the provisions of articles L. 613-2-1 et L. 611-18, the protection conferred by a patent on a product containing or consisting of genetic information extends to any material in which the product is incorporated and in which the genetic information is contained and performs the function indicated. This protection does not apply in the case of the adventitious or accidental presence of patented genetic information in seeds, plant…

The protection conferred by a patent relating to a biological material endowed, as a result of the invention, with specific properties extends to any biological material obtained from that biological material by reproduction or multiplication and endowed with those same properties. The protection conferred by a patent relating to a process for producing a biological material endowed, as a result of the invention, with specific properties extends to the biological…

The protection referred to in articles L. 613-2-2 and L. 613-2-3 shall not extend to biological material obtained by reproduction or multiplication of biological material placed on the market in the territory of a Member State of the European Community or of a State party to the Agreement on the European Economic Area by the patent holder or with his consent, where the reproduction or multiplication necessarily results from the…

In the absence of the consent of the owner of the patent, the following are prohibited: a) The manufacture, offering, placing on the market, use, import, export, transhipment, or possession for the aforementioned purposes of the product which is the subject of the patent; b) The use of a process which is the subject of the patent or, where the third party knows or where circumstances make it obvious that…

1. It shall also be prohibited, in the absence of the consent of the owner of the patent, to deliver or offer to deliver, on French territory, to a person other than those entitled to exploit the patented invention, the means of implementation, on that territory, of that invention relating to an essential element thereof, where the third party knows or where the circumstances make it obvious that those means…

The rights conferred by the patent do not extend: a) To acts performed in a private context and for non-commercial purposes; b) To acts performed on an experimental basis which relate to the subject matter of the patented invention; c) To the preparation of medicinal products made extemporaneously and by unit in pharmacies, on medical prescription, nor to acts concerning medicinal products so prepared ; d) To studies and trials…

As an exception to the provisions of Articles L. 613-2-2 and L. 613-2-3, the sale or any other act of commercialisation of plant reproductive material by the patent holder, or with his consent, to a farmer for farming purposes implies authorisation for the farmer to use the product of his harvest for reproduction or multiplication by himself on his own farm. The conditions for such use are those laid down…