appropriate relief against any person contravening any provision of
this section.
[Sub-s. (7) substituted by s. 30 (a) of Act No. 38 of 1997.]
(8)
Any person who practises as a patent attorney shall be deemed, for
the purposes of any law relating to attorneys, to be practising as an
attorney.
(9)
Any communication made by or to a patent agent in his or her
capacity as such shall be privileged from disclosure in legal
proceedings in the same manner as is any communication made by or
to an attorney in his or her capacity as such.
[Sub-s. (9) added by s. 30 (b) of Act No. 38 of 1997.]
CHAPTER V
APPLICATIONS FOR PATENTS
25.
Patentable inventions.
(1)
A patent may, subject to the provisions of this section, be granted for
any new invention which involves an inventive step and which is
capable of being used or applied in trade or industry or agriculture.
(2)
Anything which consists of—
(a)
a discovery;
(b)
a scientific theory;
(c)
a mathematical method;
(d)
a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work or any other
aesthetic creation;
(e)
a scheme, rule or method for performing a mental act, playing
a game or doing business;
(f )
a program for a computer; or
(g)
the presentation of information,
shall not be an invention for the purposes of this Act.
(3)
The provisions of subsection (2) shall prevent, only to the extent to
which a patent or an application for a patent relates to that thing as
such, anything from being treated as an invention for the purposes of
this Act.
(4)
A patent shall not be granted—
(a)
for an invention the publication or exploitation of which would
be generally expected to encourage offensive or immoral
behaviour; or
(b)
for any variety of animal or plant or any essentially biological
process for the production of animals or plants, not being a
micro-biological process or the product of such a process.
(5)
An invention shall be deemed to be new if it does not form part of the
state of the art immediately before the priority date of that invention.
[Sub-s. (5) substituted by s. 31 (a) of Act No. 38 of 1997.]
(6)
The state of the art shall comprise all matter (whether a product, a
process, information about either, or anything else) which has been