MANUAL FOR PATENT DEPOSITS

TIMING

Latest date of patent deposit

For the Industrial Property Office where you are going to file your patent application, the date of patent deposit will be the date BCCM™ physically received a viable sample of your microorganism.
The patent deposit should generally be made at the latest, on the date of filing the patent application.

Latest date for starting the patent deposit procedure

You can deduce this date with some "reverse engineering" from the latest date of patent deposit.
Never wait until the last moment to make your patent deposit!
Indeed if,for whatever reason, you have to send a replacement sample, the actual date of patent deposit will be the date a viable replacement was received.
It is better to be safe than sorry!

Here's how to deduce the date.

Estimate the number of days needed for each action applicable to your case:

• Time needed to contact BCCM™ for advice, e.g. if the microorganism can only be conserved as an active culture; is a mixture of organisms; is difficult to conserve; needs special techniques for testing its viability; might present hazards during conservation; might need special packaging, particular documents to accompany it or quarantine e.g. in the case of certain pathogenic organisms BCCM™ accept for patent deposit;

• Time needed to obtain all forms to accompany the organism;

• Time needed to complete and send the forms to BCCM™ , with the necessary information and signatures. Although the forms may accompany the microorganism, it is advisable to send them, if possible, in advance;

• Time needed to send the microorganism in the required form and quantity.
  Particular attention should also be paid to the possibility of:

• Inadequately packed containers possibly resulting in irrecoverable or contaminated organisms;
• Missing, wrong, unsigned or incomplete documents;
• Postal delays (mailed too late, exceptional situations).

• Time needed to send a replacement if, for instance, the first patent deposit was damaged or not viable. A number of the above steps will then have to be repeated. In the latter case, you should also take into account the time that was already needed to test the viability of your first sample (at least 2 days for bacteria, yeasts, plasmids and 3 days for filamentous fungi).

Add them and subtract the result from the latest date of patent deposit.
This yields the latest date for starting the patent deposit procedure. Allow a safety margin, e.g. for weekends, etc.

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Contacts

Plasmid collection accepts patent deposits of genetic material whether recombinant or not (e.g. plasmids,oncogenes, RNA) as isolated preparations or cloned in a host; animal cell lines, including human cell lines, genetically modified cell lines,hybridomas.
In general, patent deposits must not exceed containment level 3 of the "U.K. Advisory Committee on Genetic Manipulation".

Contact: Lic. M. Vanhoucke
BCCM^TM /LMBP
Departement of Molecular Biology
Ghent University
'Fiers-Schell-Van Montagu' Building
Technologiepark 927
B-9052 Zwijnaarde
Phone: +32-9-33.13.843
Fax: +32-9-33.13.504
E mail: bccm.lmbp@dmbr.UGent.be

Remark: Situation 1995
Recently, BCCM /LMBP accepts for instance nematode forms as a patent deposit.
Do not hesitate to contact BCCM™ in order to keep informed of the state of affairs

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Bacteria collection accepts patent deposits of bacteria, including actinomycetes but excluding pathogens belonging to a hazard group higher than group 2 of ACDP.

Contact: Dr. D. Janssens
BCCM™ /LMG
Laboratorium voor Microbiologie, Universiteit Gent (RUG)
K.L. Ledeganckstraat 35
B-9000 Gent
Phone: +32-9-264.51.08
Fax: +32-9-264.53.46
E mail: Danielle.Janssens@rug.ac.be

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Biomedical fungi & yeasts collection accepts patent deposits of fungi and yeasts, including pathogens responsible for mycoses in humans and animals or actinomycetes.

Contact: Ir. F. Symoens
BCCM^TM/IHEM
Scientific Institute of Public Health - Louis Pasteur
Mycology Section
Rue J. Wytsmanstraat 14
B-1050 Brussels
Phone: +32-2-642.56.30
Fax: +32-2-642.55.19
E mail: f.symoens@iph.fgov.be

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(Agro)industrial fungi & yeasts collection accepts patent deposits of fungi and yeasts, including phytopathogens, but excluding pathogenic fungi responsible for mycoses in humans and animals belonging to a hazard group higher than group 2 of the "U.K. Advisory Committee on Dangerous Pathogens (ACDP)".

Contact: Ir. C. Decock
BCCM™ /MUCL
Mycothèque de l'Université catholique de Louvain
Place Croix du Sud 3
B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve
Phone: +32-10-47.37.42
Fax: +32-10-45.15.01
E mail: decock@mbla.ucl.ac.be

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BCCM™ Co-ordination team.

Contact:
Ir. M. Bosschaerts, BCCM™ Regulatory and Quality Affairs Manager
BCCM™
OSTC - Wetenschapsstraat, 8-Rue de la Science, 8
B-1000 Brussels
Phone: +32-2-238.36.07
Fax: +32-2-230.59.12
E mail:bosc@belspo.be

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