Latest News & Features
Asia-Pacific
Australia’s government has said the period of data exclusivity available for biological drugs in the Trans-Pacific Partnership will be five years, despite pressure from the US to extend it to 12. 7 October 2015
Europe
The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has ended the uncertainty over the term of supplementary protection certificates (SPCs) by ruling that they begin once a party is notified of a marketing authorisation for a drug. 6 October 2015
Americas
The US Supreme Court has declined to hear manufacturer W L Gore & Associates’s request for clarity on whether US patent law stipulates that patent licensing agreements must be placed in writing. 6 October 2015
Americas
The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has upheld a lower court’s ruling that Spectrum Pharmaceuticals’s Fusilev patent is invalid and wasn’t infringed by generics company Sandoz. 5 October 2015
Americas
Law firm Goodwin Procter has promoted five lawyers to partner in the firm’s intellectual property practice, including two life sciences specialists. 5 October 2015
Americas
The US Federal Trade Commission has intervened in a ‘product hopping’ dispute concerning an acne treatment drug. 2 October 2015
Big Pharma
Representatives from the pharmaceutical and engineering industries have said that the decision to opt existing patents into the Unified Patent Court will be a strategic decision done on a case-by-case basis. 2 October 2015
Biotechnology
Supplementary protection certificates should take effect once an applicant for marketing authorisation has been notified of the authorisation, an advocate-general has urged the Court of Justice of the European Union to confirm. 2 October 2015
Big Pharma
The Court of Justice of the European Union has clarified when pharmaceutical patent owners may rely on the Specific Mechanism to prevent parallel imports of their products. 2 October 2015
Big Pharma
An Advocate General in the Court of Justice of the European Union, Niilo Jääskinen, has clarified how the regulation for supplementary protection certificates should be interpreted concerning medicinal products made with a combination of active ingredients. 2 October 2015