Patents

The Commission and the European Patent office are taking action to eradicate underhand tactics for keeping generic drugs off the market.

The world’s five major patent offices are to join forces to banish duplication, make examination procedures more efficient and improve international patent rights.

The US and European patent offices have launched a trial of the Patent Prosecution Highway, a scheme they say will speed up the granting of patents.

The UK High Court issued its judgment Eli Lilly & Co v Human Genome Sciences Inc, the first UK case to decide the validity of a gene sequence patent discovered through bioinformatics.

After frowning on the idea of avoiding patent litigation through arbitration, the European Commission appears to have changed its mind.

Just under a year since the last suit was settled Bavarian Nordic is going back to court, seeking a slice of a lucrative cancer vaccine deal.

Two days were reserved by the European Patent Office to hear an appeal over the application for a stem cell patent. But only one was needed in the end.

Supreme Court Rulings and patent reform are making it harder to defend patents in the US – and biotechs are falling back on trade secrets to protect their IP.

Alternative Dispute Resolution can help keep litigation costs down and reach a speedy conclusion to a dispute.

Brussels is abuzz with speculation that Europe’s fragmented, costly and complex patent regime is about to reform – aided by advances in machine translation. But support is not unanimous.