Latest News & Features
Big Pharma
The Pharmaq v Intervet SPC decision leaves open the question of just how similar to the authorised active ingredient an infringing generic product needs to be. Sam Bailey of Mewburn Ellis reports. 4 February 2016
Americas
As reflected in numerous recent court opinions, the broad Supreme Court rulings of Mayo, Myriad and Alice have drastically changed the landscape of patent-eligibility in diagnostics. Jenny Shmuel and Megan Chacon of Fish & Richardson review the situation and discuss some future scenarios. 27 January 2016
Americas
Despite the current unfavourable climate, there is still reason to be optimistic about patenting diagnostic method claims in the US, particularly if the claim is focused on a particular disease, biomarker, and/or treatment and includes an active step that applies the diagnostic information, says Kevin O’Connor of Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg. 21 January 2016
Big Pharma
A unitary supplementary protection certificate looks like a logical and desirable extension of the unitary patent system, and right owners and practitioners need to keep an eye on developments in EU regulation, as Andrew Webb and Graham Lewis of J A Kemp describe. 14 January 2016
Africa
Intellectual property rights should be used to help valorise agricultural biodiversity and traditional knowledge for the benefit of the global population as well as small farming communities around the world, says Graham Dutfield of the University of Leeds. 11 January 2016
Americas
The manner in which some Canadian judges have applied the ‘promise’ doctrine has been criticised as arbitrary and subjective, note Declan Hamill and Megan Kendall of Innovative Medicines Canada, the association of Canada’s innovative pharmaceutical industry. 7 January 2016
Biotechnology
A grace period would give German inventors more flexibility to deal with different rules set by scientific publications and patenting procedures, and allow them to seek patent rights without the fear of prior disclosure, as Michael Kahnert of BIO Deutschland reports. 5 January 2016
Americas
The smartphone wars may have slowed down but many smaller high-tech companies continue to assert their IP rights against competitors, as the fitness tracker battle shows. Fabio Marino and Luc Dahlin of McDermott Will & Emery report. 22 December 2015
Big Pharma
The complex rules around the filing of divisional applications relating to priority of patent claims are designed to maintain the integrity of the first-to-file system, as Ashley Roughton of Nabarro explains. 17 December 2015
Big Pharma
The application of supplementary protection certificates to the unitary patent system poses numerous complexities, both legal and practical, as Christopher Stothers and Paul Abbott of Arnold & Porter describe. 10 December 2015