Answer ... The Danish Patent and Trademark Office controls the registration procedure.

Answer ... The cost for registering a patent depends on the technical nature of the invention. The costs start with a basic fee of DKK3,000 for up to 10 patent claims, which covers filing, search and examination; additional claims cost DKK300 per claim.

However, most patents granted with effect in Denmark are European patents. To take effect in Denmark, a European patent must be validated in Denmark within three months of the date on which it was granted in Europe by the European Patent Office. The costs of converting a European patent application into a Danish patent application also start with a basic fee of DKK3,000 for up to 10 claims; additional claims cost DKK 300 per claim.

Answer ... If the application does not comply with the formal requirements or the patentability requirements (ie, lack of industrial application, lack of novelty and/or lack of inventive step), the Danish Patent and Trademark Office will notify the applicant accordingly and invite it to file its observations or correct the application within a specified timeframe.

The Danish Patent and Trademark Office may reject the application based on these deficiencies as long as the applicant has been given the opportunity to present its views in this regard.

Answer ... The Danish Patent and Trademark Office is currently participating in a global Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) programme, a bilateral PPH programme with the Chinese patent office and a pilot PPH programme with the Brazilian patent office.

The offices currently participating in the global PPH programme are Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, New Zealand, Japan, Korea, Nordic Patent Institute, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Colombia, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States and Visegrad Patent Institute.

A PPH is an informal agreement between patent offices which means that an applicant can request accelerated processing of a patent application at a participating patent office if another participating patent office has already found the corresponding patent claims to be patentable.

Answer ... The following subject matter and activities are not regarded as inventions and are therefore not patentable:

• discoveries, scientific theories and mathematical methods;
• aesthetic creations;
• schemes, rules or methods for performing mental acts, playing games or doing business, and computer programs; and
• presentations of information.

Furthermore, the following subject matter is not patentable:

• methods for the treatment of humans or animals by surgery or therapy, and diagnostic methods practised to this end;
• plant or animal varieties;
• essential biological processes for the production of plants or animals;
• the human body at its various stages of formation and development, and the simple discovery of one of its elements, including the sequence or partial sequence of a gene; and
• inventions whose commercial exploitation would be contrary to public order or morality, including:
• • processes for cloning human beings;
  • processes for modifying the germ line genetic identity of human beings;
  • industrial or commercial uses of human embryos; and
  • processes for modifying the genetic identity of animals that are likely to cause suffering without any substantial medical benefit to man or animal, and animals resulting from such processes.

Answer ... The patent term is definitively fixed. However, in the case of specific products, it is possible to obtain extended protection on the basis of a granted patent pursuant to the provisions on supplementary protection certificates.

The provisions on supplementary protection certificates do not extend the patent term as such, but rather extend the period of protection of the product.

For pharmaceutical and plant patents, the protection period may be extended through a supplementary protection certificate for an additional period of up to five years.

Answer ... The Danish Patents Act does not set out positive guidance on what constitutes patent-eligible subject matter. However, it does set out a non-exhaustive list of what is not patent-eligible subject matter (see question 3.5).

Answer ... Applicants may appeal a final decision of the Danish Patent and Trademark Office concerning a patent application before the Board of Appeal for Patents and Trademarks. The appeal must be filed within two months of the date on which the Danish Patent and Trademark Office notified the applicant of its decision. A fee of DKK8,000 is payable within the same timeframe; failure to pay this fee will result in the rejection of the appeal.