4.9 Industrial application 

The description should indicate explicitly the way in which the invention is capable of exploitation in industry if this is not obvious from the description or from the nature of the invention. The expression "capable of exploitation in industry" means the same as "susceptible of industrial application", and indeed identical expressions are used in the French and German texts of the EPC. In view of the broad meaning given to the latter expression by Art. 57 (see G‑III, 1), it is to be expected that, in most cases, the way in which the invention can be exploited in industry will be self-evident so that no more explicit description on this point will be required; but there may be a few instances, e.g. in relation to methods of testing, where the manner of industrial exploitation is not apparent and must therefore be explicitly indicated.

Also, in relation to certain biotechnological inventions, i.e. sequences and partial sequences of genes, the industrial application is not self-evident. The industrial application of such sequences must be disclosed in the patent application (see G‑III, 4).