Title III
Patents

37. The following shall not be regarded as inventions and shall be excluded from patent protection:

(a) discoveries, scientific theories and mathematical methods;

(b) plant or animal varieties;

(c) economic, financial, easily verified trade and taxation systems, methods, principles or plans, and the rules for performing purely mental or intellectual activities or playing games;

(d) methods for treatment of the human or animal body by surgery or therapy and diagnostic methods practiced on the human or animal body, except products for use in any of these methods;

(e) new uses of articles, objects or elements known and already used for specific purposes, and changes of shape, dimensions, proportions or materials in the subject matter applied for, except where the qualities of the subject matter are essentially altered or where its use solves a technical problem that did not previously have an equivalent solution.

38. Inventions contrary to the law, public policy, State security, morality or proper practice, or those filed by a person who is not their legitimate owner, shall not be patentable.

51. Non-voluntary licenses may only be granted where the holder of a patent has committed a monopoly abuse according to the Resolution Committee established under Decree-Law No.211 of 1973. which shall be the body responsible for determining the existence of an offense and taking a decision thereon.

The Committee's decision shall take at least the following aspects into consideration:

-the existence of a monopoly abuse;

-where such an abuse is established, the decision of the Committee shall determine the conditions under which the licensee is to work the patent, the time for which the license is to be granted and the amount of compensation that the person using the non-voluntary licensing procedure must periodically pay to the holder of the patent.

For all the purposes of analyzing the financial and accounting statements, the rules of the Superintendencia de Valores y Seguros [Supervisory Body for Securities and Insurance] for open corporations shall be applicable.

the rules for perfornling purely mental or intellectual activities or playing games;

(d) methods for treatment of the human or animal body by surgery or therapy and diagnostic methods practiced on the human or animal body, except products for use in any of these methods;

(e) new uses of articles, objects or elements known and already used for specific purposes, and changes of shape, dimensions, proportions or materials in the subject matter applied for, except where the qualities of the subject matter are essentially altered or where its use solves a technical problem that did not previously have an equivalent solution.