In a judgment issued on September 28, 2010, the Court of First Instance of Paris held that a dosage regime is effectively a method of treatment and is, as such, excluded from patentability in view of Article 53c of EPC 2000. In this particular case, the use of finasteride for the treatment of androgenic alopecia was known and the only novel element of the patent was the dosage regime The Court nullified the French part of Merck’s European patent. The Court paid great attention to the decisions issued by UK and German courts regarding the same patent, and to the position taken by the EPO in its decision G2/08.
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A full summary of this case has been published on Kluwer IP Law.
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