Regulating Patent Offices: Countering Pharmaceutical Hegemony

Patent Applications in the Pharmaceutical Field

Individuals and companies file patent applications for a variety of reasons. Decisions as to which technological developments merit patent protection, the territories in which patent protection is sought, and the point in time at which a patent application is filed can be driven by many factors, including cost, legal considerations, the extent of supporting experimental data available, and abov...

Pharmaceutical innovation and non-patent protection

This issue of Pharmaceuticals Policy and Law provides an international overview of the main instruments for the non-patent protection of pharmaceuticals that addresses pertinent legal issues in WTO, Japanese, US, and EU law. The concept of non-patent protection relates to the area beyond the regular patent protection of 20 years. It essentially encompasses three mechanisms of protection: first,...

Regulating pharmaceutical advertising: what will work?

As Dr. Joel Lexchin makes painfully obvious in this issue (see pages 351 to 356), regulatory processes governing pharmaceutical advertising in Canada and elsewhere are seriously compromised. However, the remedial measures Lexchin proposes are not sufficient. Financial sanctions against improper advertising are likely to be regarded by manufacturers as the cost of doing business, and any regulat...

Corporate Hegemony in Remission: The Pharmaceutical Industry and the HIV/AIDS crisis

Legal Validity Metrics for Patent Offices and Law Firms e Recycling of Patent Court Appeal Decisions for Quality Management

In all relevant patent systems an adversely affected party has the possibility to appeal the patent office’s decision in front of a patent court or Board of Appeal (BoA). Within a European context, the EPO is, in a way, even engaging in de facto competition with national patent offices. As an example, the German Patent and Trademark Office (DPMA) provides quasi identical patent products and off...