Patent Baristas

The UK Patents Court invalidated patent claims to an enantiomer of a known racemate mixture in Generics Ltd. V. Novartis AG [2011] EWHC 2403 (Pat). Generics (UK) Ltd. (Mylan) filed an action to try to invalidate a Supplementary Protection Certificate (“SPC”) for a drug for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease called rivastigmine.  An SPC extends […]

The United States along with Australia, Canada, the European Union and its member states, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, and Switzerland reaffirmed their commitment to the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) at a signing ceremony in Tokyo. The agreement is meant to fight against the infringement of intellectual property rights (IPR), in particular […]

Like Bieber fever, the itch to mess with the rules for patenting have spread far and wide.  There is currently being considered a Bill to amend Australia’s patent law, which proposes a number of substantial changes. Description of the invention Under the proposed legislation, there will be a requirement that the description must enable the […]

The Indian patents system, having its seeds laid in the British era (1852) and undergoing sporadic replantations (the 1912, 1970, 2005 Patents Act & amendments), was appearing to grow tall and bear fruits until a noticeable downfall last year. It was surprising and interesting to note the sudden decline in the patents filed, examined and […]

Article 229-C of the Brazilian IP Law establishes the need of a “prior approval” by the Agência Nacional de Vigilância Sanitária – ANVISA (the Brazilian regulatory agency responsible for the approval of drugs) – for the issuance of a patent in the pharmaceutical area. This requirement was introduced by the Brazilian Law No. 10.196 of […]

Recently, Vaughan Barlow details the ramifications of the Patent Amendment (Human Genes and Biological Materials) Bill (2010), currently being debated before the Australian parliament. The Bill seeks to ban the patenting of all biological material that is “identical or substantially identical to such materials as they exist in nature”. If passed, this legislation may significantly […]

In September 2009, we reported on an Australian Patent Office (APO) decision relating to an application for an extension of patent term for a trans-dermal patch.  The application for an extension of patent term was denied by the APO on the basis that the claim was not directed to a “pharmaceutical substance” as is required […]

The APO has issued a decision which has created uncertainty regarding the patentability of business methods. Until recently, our advice to clients was that business methods were patentable in AU, provided that the claims were limited to execution of the business method in a computer environment. The APO has now issued the Iowa Lottery decision […]