Patent Deposit Service

NCTC and ECACC have been recognised International Depository Authorities (IDAs) under the Budapest Treaty since 1982 and 1984 respectively. The Budapest Treaty contains the regulations on the international recognition of the deposit of microorganisms for the purposes of patent procedure. Intellectual property offices world-wide require that the written disclosure for an invention of a new microorganism be supplemented by the deposit of that microorganism in a recognised culture collection.

NCTC accepts bacteria as patent deposits, including those of ACDP Hazard Group 3, that can be preserved without significant change to their properties by freeze-drying and which are pathogenic to man and/or animals; they should also be free-living and grow on ordinary laboratory media. ECACC accepts the following types of patent deposits: human and animal cell lines including genetically modified lines up to GMO2, hybridomas, viruses up to and including ACDP Hazard Group 3 pathogens and eukaryotic and viral recombinant DNA either as naked DNA or cloned into a host organism. Viruses are processed on behalf of ECACC by the National Collection of Pathogenic Viruses (NCPV).

As IDAs, NCTC and ECACC are required to provide services on the same terms to any depositor. We will accept and store microorganisms deposited with us for the full period specified in the Treaty (at least 30 years or five years after the most recent request for a sample whichever is the later). Furthermore we will release (furnish) samples of deposited microorganisms only to those entitled to receive them.

Every deposit is assigned a unique accession number on arrival at NCTC or ECACC, at the latter this is stored on the patent database. Accession numbers are provisional until the patent has proved viable and pure (NCTC) or passed QC testing (ECACC).