Currently, the cost of validating a European patent in multiple European jurisdictions can be prohibitive and a prudent Patentee may have to select a subset of EPO countries to protect their invention in. In contrast, the unitary patent offers the advantages of wider...
Background US patents have a term of 20 years from the filing date of the patent application. A long period of prosecution, however, can effectively diminish the patent term, since a patent is only enforceable after grant. In an effort to make things fairer, the USPTO...
Eli Lilly is the patent holder of a drug called pemetrexed (Lilly brand “Alimta”) that has been the subject of court proceedings in the UK, which we have reported previously. This case concerns a related issue during US proceedings in which the US Federal...
The time-consuming and costly regulatory review of new pharmaceuticals led to the Supplementary Protection Certificate (SPC) system being introduced in 1992. The SPC system is designed to compensate for the shortening in effective patent term that arises from the...
Following the UK Supreme Court decision in Actavis v Eli Lilly in which Lord Neuberger concluded that the term “sodium” also covered “potassium” as an equivalent, a judgement was handed down in Milan also concerning the scope of protection of...
What Are GMO and Why Are They Regulated? Genetically modified organisms are heavily regulated in Europe and indeed most of the Western hemisphere. In Europe this is governed by Directive 2001/18/EC on the deliberate release of GMOs into the environment (the “GMO...
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