특허절차상 생물학적 물질 기탁제도에 관한 연구

When filing a patent application for an invention relating to biological materials including microorganisms, the applicant is obligated by law to deposit the relevant material or microorganism at an institution designated by the Patent Office Commissioner, in principle, in order for the specification to meet the disclosure requirement as well as for third parties to have access to samples of the biological materials. Concerning this, the Budapest Treaty on the International Recognition of the Deposit of Microorganisms for the Purposes of Patent Procedure is an international treaty signed in Hungary on the 28th of April, 1977. The treaty came into force on August 9, 1980. This treaty is commonly known as the Budapest Treaty. The Treaty makes the patent system of the contracting state more attractive because it is beneficial to the depositor if s/he is an applicant for patents in several contracting states. The deposit of a microorganism following the procedures in the treaty will save money of the depositor. It also helps in increasing the security. With the recent development of the biotechnological industry, however, the patent deposit system of a biological material has been criticized as having not completely responded to the changes in the circumstances of the times, and improvements are required both in terms of the system and related regulations. The Current Korea Patent law, related regulations and rules don't enough reflect the Budapest Treaty, therefore, the related procedures are unclear. In this research and study, based on the analysis of the Budapest Treaty and the law relevant to the deposit of biological materials in the patent procedure in he United States, European Union and Japan, we propose an ideal legal improvement of the patent deposit system for biological materials in Korea.