Pharmaceutical Patents In Europe

The pharmaceutical industry and patent legislation are inextricably linked. Pharmaceutical companies could not exist without some guarantee that they can recoup the cost of developing a new product. European patent law offers this opportunity, as it allows companies to exclude competition for a specific product for a fixed time scale. In Pharmaceutical Patents in Europe the current legal patent situation is examined by a detailed analysis of case law from the European Patent Office (EPO), the international body created with the signing of the European Patent Convention (EPC). Aspects of European patent law not primarily regulated in the EPC, for example Supplementary Protection Certificates and infringement matters, are examined in the setting provided by EC law and domestic laws of European states. This book is written for the reader who understands the main characteristics of patent law and is looking for a practitioner's text on the European pharmaceutical patent law scene. Moreover, the author's remarks can help all readers to look at the field with fresh eyes.

When a party develops a ‘second medical use’ for a known substance or compound, special issues of patentability arise. Jurisdictions around the world vary significantly in their treatment of such claims. This detailed country-by-country analysis provides clarity, insight, and guidance on the legal issues and practical implications of second medical use claims in nineteen jurisdictions worldwide as well as the European Union. The authors of the country chapters have been carefully selected based on a broad basis of experience and in-depth knowledge about medical patents in their respective jurisdictions. Each chapter considers such issues and topics as the following: • availability of protection; • validity of claims; • scope of protection; • enforcement; and • infringement. A general chapter about the practice of the European Patent Office (EPO) addresses in particular the latest changes in the format of second medical use claims from the “Swiss-type claims” to the “EPC 2000 claims”. Specific issues and national peculiarities which deviate from the EPO practice are explained in the various national European chapters, while chapters on jurisdictions outside Europe cover both prosecution and enforcement of patents with second medical use claims. As a comparative law study and a collection of contributions from around the world on an important and controversial field, this book will prove of tremendous practical interest for the industry involved and for the public. Applicants for pharmaceutical patents, third parties, and interested legal practitioners will benefit greatly from its thorough comparative analysis and guidance. This book is the second volume in the AIPPI Law Series which has been established together with the International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property (AIPPI).

The book engages with a broad range of new case studies, providing a detailed examination of options for the resolution of access-to-medicine issues at global, national and local levels. In addition, the book reflects the significant progress in international and national patent law and in international policy-making in this area.

Public health, safety and access to reasonably priced medicine are common policy goals of pharmaceutical regulations. As both the context for innovation and competitive structure change, industry actors dynamically challenge the balance between the incentive for protection and the achievement of those policy goals. Considering the arguments from the perspectives of innovation, competition law and patent law, this book explores the difficult question of balancing protection with access, highlighting the difficulties in harmonization and coordination. The contributors to this book, including academics, judges and practitioners from Europe, the US and Japan, explore to what extent patent strategies and life-cycle management practices take advantage of patent laws and health-care regulation and disrupt the necessary balance between incentives for innovation and access to affordable medicine and health care. Addressing fundamental questions in the field of pharmaceutical innovation, this book will appeal to scholars and practitioners in intellectual property, competition law and life sciences regulation, as well as pharmaceutical companies and regulators.

Written by an experienced European Patent Attorney and scholar, this book sets out in detail the framework for protection of pharmaceutical innovation under the SPC Regulation. With a focus on both biotechnological innovation and secondary innovation, and through extensive reference to the case law, Ulla Klinge surveys the court’s evolving interpretation of legal and technical eligibility for this extended term of protection. This book provides clear and pragmatic tools to reflect and guide future practice, while offering key explanations and insights as to why and how technological developments challenge the legal SPC framework.

This book is a highly readable and entertaining account of the co-evolution of the patent system and the life science industries since the mid-19th century. The pharmaceutical industries have their origins in advances in synthetic chemistry and in natural products research. Both approaches to drug discovery and business have shaped patent law, as have the lobbying activities of the firms involved and their supporters in the legal profession. In turn, patent law has impacted on the life science industries. Compared to the first edition, which told this story for the first time, the present edition focuses more on specific businesses, products and technologies, including Bayer, Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline, aspirin, penicillin, monoclonal antibodies and polymerase chain reaction. Another difference is that this second edition also looks into the future, addressing new areas such as systems biology, stem cell research, and synthetic biology, which promises to enable scientists to ?invent? life forms from scratch.Contents: Seven Tales of a Patent; Patents and the Life Science Industries in the Modern Economy; Past: Dyes, Drugs and Domagk; Adrenaline Rushes ? Isolate, Purify ? and Patent; Science and Drug Discovery ? Ignorance, Serendipity and Rational Drug Design; Aspirin; Insulin; Penicillin and the Antibiotics; Cortisone and the Steroids; Polymerase Chain Reaction; The Gene Patent Wars; Innovations without Patents? The Polio Vaccine and Monoclonal Antibodies; Present: Big Pharma, Small Biotech; Crises, Backlashes and Counter-backlashes; Would We Have Got Where We are Today without Patents?; Future: Systems Biology, Stem Cells, ?Synbio? and the Future of Patents.

This innovative book explores the complex interplay between intellectual property for biotechnological innovations and human rights. Examining the clash between the drive to incentivise innovations that can fulfil human needs and the desire to grant global access to healthcare technologies, it presents thoughtful solutions to the challenges of protecting the human rights of all parties impacted by biotechnological patents and other relevant IP rights.