Intellectual property protection of molecules/proteins/genesatural products: will recent case law change patent practice in the pharmaceutical industry?

摘要

Pharmaceutical industry heavily relies on a small number of patents, or a single patent in some cases. Although there is no definition in the legal texts or statutes in most countries in the world, in practice, there are a couple of categories in types of patents that may have impact on the scope and manner of protection for pharmaceutical products. A 'product patent (or substance patent),' is the major and important category and is sometimes called a 'basic patent,' and a couple of other types such as manufacture/production patent, use patent (for example; first medical use, second medical use, etc.) and formulation patent, are widely known to give supplemental protection to the pharmaceutical product. In this Commentary, I will focus on the product patent in terms of how it is protected and interpreted in view of recent changes in case law and guidelines in various jurisdictions.