Indonesian invention patent application practice (1) - Patent application in the field of microorganisms

Microbiology is a scientific field that offers the development of a large number of promising patented inventions. Microbiology is the study of the biology of microorganisms (such as viruses, bacteria, algae, fungi, slime molds and protozoa). With reference to Indonesia’s 2019 Patent Substantive Examination Technical Guidelines, readers will be introduced to some Indonesian microbial patent situations.

In the patent application specification, if there is any content related to microorganisms, the following points need to be considered to ensure that the patent is fully disclosed:

Microorganism name:

• In principle, microorganisms must be described by their scientific names in accordance with microbial nomenclature. For example, genus and species names must be italicized, where genus names begin with a capital letter, and species names must be all lowercase. For example: Escherichia coli, Salmonella, Rhizopus, etc.

Strains:

• In the case of identifying a microbial strain, the characteristics must be described with the strain name following the strain name (according to the microbial nomenclature).
• If a microorganism cannot be characterized by a species name, it can be described by a strain name and a genus name. If a strain of the microorganism has been deposited, the strain may be characterized by an accession number next to the species name or a description of the strain name after the species name. Example: Bacillus subtilis FERM P-xxxxx strain.

Biological properties:

• Biological traits are taxonomically general traits, however, other microbial traits (e.g., selective production of metabolites) can be used to characterize. For microorganisms whose characteristics cannot be described by species names, after explaining the reasons why the species names cannot express characteristics, they should be described with both species names and genus names.

Furthermore, the microbiological properties of a microorganism should be described according to whether it is a new strain or species:

1. "trustworthy"
Inventions relating to microorganisms themselves or to the use of new microorganisms must describe the means for producing these microorganisms to enable a person skilled in the art to produce them. Tools for producing microorganisms include screening tools, mutagenesis tools, genetic recombination tools, etc.

2. "Available"
The microbial invention itself and the use of the microorganism must be described in a way that an expert in the field can use and carry out the invention. Knowledge of how to use the invention may be described in detail in the description of the invention, taking into account the description (excluding the claims), the drawings and the general knowledge at the time of the patent application, but a person skilled in the art would not be able to do so without the detailed description. Unless otherwise understood.