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

David Alcock of the Patent Attorneys D Young & Co addresses concerns that a recent patent judgment undermines the concept of evergreening, even though Tate & Lyle’s US patents to Sucralose are valid.

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 long-running row over software patenting has finally been referred to the highest appeals body of the European Patent Office.

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.

Increased patent filings China, South Korea and the US drove growth in worldwide filing of patent applications to 1.76 million in 2006 a 4.9 percent increase over 2005.

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.

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.