INFORMATION FROM THE CONTRACTING / EXTENSION STATES
AT Austria
Amendment of the Patent Law1
On 20 August 1994 the Federal Law amending the 1970 Patent Law2 entered into force. This Law supplements the measures contained in the 1984 Patent Law Amending Law (Patentrechts-Novelle 1984)3 adapting Austrian legislation to the substantive law provisions of the EPC.
In particular, methods for the treatment of the animal body by surgery or therapy and diagnostic methods practised on the animal body are now excluded from patent protection (Section 2.2) and the EPC's "whole contents approach" when examining for "prior rights" has been adopted (Section 3(2)).
The provisions governing compulsory licences have also been supplemented in the light of recent decisions of the European Court of Justice, to the effect that the importation of goods protected by patent is also to be understood as coming under the heading of "working of the invention" (Section 36(2)).