Patent Law Weblog
Category: International IP
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By Donald Zuhn — On Tuesday, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) announced a new five-year strategic plan for WIPO Re:Search to guide that initiative's activities in the fight against neglected tropical diseases, malaria, and tuberculosis. WIPO Re:Search is a consortium of public and private sector organizations that was established in 2011 by WIPO and…
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By Kevin E. Noonan — On April 28th, Ambassador Robert Lighthizer, U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), issued the 2017 Special 301 Report. According to the USTR website, "[t]he 2017 Special 301 Report underscores the Administration's key trade priority of ensuring that U.S. owners of IP have full and fair opportunity to use and profit from their…
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By Donald Zuhn — Last month, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce released its 5th annual International IP Index, entitled "The Roots of Innovation," which provides an "IP report card" for 45 world economies that account for 90% of the global gross domestic product. The Index's ratings are based on an analysis of 35 indicators in…
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By James Cherry* & Adam Denley** — The scope for enforcement of Swiss-style claims may be broader in Australia than for method of medical treatment claims. Second medical use inventions can be claimed in an ever increasing number of claim formats depending on the jurisdiction. While such inventions in Europe are now claimed in purpose-limited-product…
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In December 2016, the Norwegian Court of Appeal handed down its decision in Pharmaq v Intervet[1], which concerns the validity of Intervet's SPC for a viral vaccine for preventing pancreatic disease (PD) in salmonid fish. Followers of SPC case law will be aware that questions relating to this case have previously been considered by the…
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By Kevin E. Noonan — On Monday, President Trump made good on one of his signature campaign promises and notified the other twelve countries (Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam) considering ratifying the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement that the United States was withdrawing from the treaty and he…
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The Preparatory Committee of the UPC has published a revised timetable for the final stages of preparations for the opening of the Unified Patent Court (UPC). The revised timetable indicates that the Sunrise Period during which existing European Patents can be opted out of the jurisdiction of the UPC could start in September 2017 and the UPC…
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By David Brown* — The final decision of the Court of Appeal in the Lyrica® litigation was handed down on 13 October 2016. This litigation, relating to the painkiller pregabalin marketed by Warner-Lambert for the treatment of pain under the name Lyrica®, has been keenly followed as the first detailed analysis of infringement of "second…
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The following article was reprinted with permission from J A Kemp. The European Patent Office (EPO) continues to grant many patents relating to antibodies, and in doing so applies the same patentability criteria as to other inventions. However, some commentators have suggested that antibodies are regarded as a special case by the EPO when evaluating…
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By Chris Vindurampulle* — Two recent Australian Patent Office decisions have provided clarity as to the patentability of isolated nucleic acid sequences following the High Court's decision in D'Arcy v Myriad Genetics1 ('Myriad'). The first decision is perhaps not such a surprise, however the second decision represents a clear contradiction in Patent Office practice following…
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