PHARMA PRODUCT PATENT PROTECTION ONLY GUARANTEED IN EU IF MADE AFTER 1994, SAYS ECJ
July 1st, 2013
THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled that patents covering pharmaceutical manufacturing processes cannot be extended to cover the resulting product if the patent was lodged before 1994. That was when the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPs) came into force, and it says patents must cover a medicine’s content and manufacturing methods. But the ECJ has ruled such protection cannot apply to patents lodged before TRIPs. Daiichi Sankyo and Sanofi-Aventis had wanted to prevent a Greece generic ...
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