Last week, the Ministry of Economy, along with two Secretaries of Agriculture and Industry and Commerce, derogated Joint Resolutions 810/2001 and 99/2001 and effectively eliminated the procedural constraints that hampered the revision of patentability guidelines for biotechnological inventions for over two decades. The derogated regulations had established a Permanent Task Group — composed of representatives from various government bodies — and required that any amendment to such guidelines be approved by the Secretary of Agriculture, rendering the revision process overly complex and limiting the Argentinian Patent Office’s (INPI) ability to update its examination criteria in a timely and technically-driven manner.
Even though the modifications introduced in Argentina since February 2026 (as part of the commitments Argentina undertook vis-à-vis the United States under the bilateral agreement) have, in principle, addressed the restrictive patentability guidelines in pharma applications, that has not been the case in the biotechnology field, which exclude certain categories of subject matter from protection in terms widely regarded as inconsistent with the TRIPS Agreement. This is the first step towards finally derogating Resolution No. 283/2015 issued by the INPI, which is the current framework for assessing patentability of biotechnology related inventions.
