Public-Private Coalition’s High-Profile Delinkage Policy For Emerging Vaccines 04/04/2017 by Tatum Anderson for Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment It’s early February in Tchaourou district, Borgou in Benin, and a pregnant woman is admitted to hospital. Her premature baby is born by caesarean section but she dies a day later on February 12th. It turns out she had Lassa fever, a deadly viral haemorrhagic disease. But that’s only discovered after the baby is discharged from hospital and taken to northern Togo. The newborn also becomes ill and is taken to hospital for treatment.
The Current And Future Scope Of IPR Estoppel 04/04/2017 by Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment David I. Berl and Christopher A. Suarez write: The estoppel provision of the America Invents Act, 35 U.S.C. 315(e), was touted originally as a check against patent challengers using inter partes review (“IPR”) proceedings to attack patents serially on the same or similar grounds. That provision precludes an IPR petitioner, or the real party in interest or privy of the petitioner, from asserting invalidity challenges in subsequent IPR, district court, or International Trade Commission (“ITC”) proceedings “on any ground that the petitioner raised or reasonably could have raised during” an IPR that resulted “in a final written decision.” Given the frequency of IPR and associated district court challenges, the scope of the AIA’s estoppel provision, with respect to the parties and arguments it estops, has become and will continue to be a critical and frequently contested issue for litigants.
Report Finds Wide Gap In Pharma Companies’ Profits And Spending On R&D 03/04/2017 by Intellectual Property Watch 2 Comments A new report from Public Citizen, the US-based consumer rights advocacy group, shows that the 20 largest pharmaceutical corporations are spending significantly less on research and development of new medicines than they are making in profits.
Special Report: Will The Internet Of Things Need New Patenting/Licensing Strategies? 03/04/2017 by Dugie Standeford for Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment The Internet of Things (IoT), which will connect billions of devices in coming years, may offer incredible opportunities for businesses and consumers but it also raises significant intellectual property issues, IP lawyers, mobile operators and others say. One key question is whether patenting and licensing strategies will have to change to adapt to the myriad standards being developed and patents being sought for IoT products and services, and for the coming rollout of 5G technologies.
Funding Injection For New Antibiotics: The CARB-X Transatlantic Partnership 30/03/2017 by Kim Treanor for Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment A partnership of government agencies and organisations in the United States and United Kingdom have announced an investment of up to US$48 million into the development of new antibiotics and products to fight antibiotic resistant bacteria, with the aim of having two new antibiotics in human trials in the next five years.
USPTO Director Lee Emerges From Silence, Praises Latin America For Joining Patenting Scheme 29/03/2017 by Intellectual Property Watch 2 Comments The director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Michelle Lee, today resurfaced after weeks of silence, speaking after the trilateral meeting of the US, European and Japan patent offices. Among her remarks was praise for Latin American countries for joining the Patent Prosecution Highway, which she said has already resulted in much faster patents in the region.
Medicines Patent Pool Sublicenses New Antibiotic Candidate To TB Alliance For Development 24/03/2017 by Intellectual Property Watch 2 Comments TB Alliance and the Medicines Patent Pool announced today a licensing agreement for the development of sutezolid, a new antibiotic drug candidate which may be used to treat tuberculosis.
Will Brexit Block The European Unitary Patent? 23/03/2017 by Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment European Patent Office President Benoît Battistelli today in Brussels expressed confidence that the first European Union unitary patent could be granted by the end of this year despite continued delays in the ratification process.But doubts remain.
What To Watch Out For In The EU-Mercosur FTA Negotiations: Consequences For Access To Medicines 22/03/2017 by Intellectual Property Watch 6 Comments As negotiations take place this week, an evaluation of the impact of one of the TRIPS-plus measures of the Mercosur/EU FTA on the prices of medicines in Brazil has been released. Based on the draft of the agreement, by their calculations, an additional USD 444 million would be necessary to be spent by the public health system for the purchase of six medicines alone, write Marcela Fogaça Vieira and Gabriela Costa Chaves.
EPO Official Aggressively Promotes Software Patents At CEBIT Fair 22/03/2017 by Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment At the world‘s biggest computer fair, the CEBIT in Hannover, Germany today, an official of the European Patent Office promoted patents for computer-implemented inventions (CII), also called software patents by critics. CII continues to grow considerably, according to EPO.