Regular readers of the Blog may be aware of my particular interest in pharma patents and, more especially since the Covid-19 pandemic, for compulsory licensing (see for instance here). I was therefore very happy (and pride) to participate in a Collective Tribune bringing together renowned specialists in property and patent laws (academics and practitioners), who…

What is it with the Dutch and money? How much truth is there in the cliché that the Dutch are cheap? Do we really get back to business after a romantic diner and split the bill to the cent? Where does this ‘going Dutch’ come from? That term, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, connects…

On 1 March 2021, the Eurasian Patent Office launched the Pharmaceutical Register , covering 8 jurisdictions, including Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan A demo-version is available on the official website of EAPO.   The new Register contains information on Eurasian patents protecting active substances of drugs. The EAPO specifically indicates that the Pharmaceutical Register shall relate to…

It’s an understatement to say that it’s not always very easy to be a French patent litigator in a transnational litigation, in any case a good dose of humor is needed: how many jokes have I heard about our jurisdictional system? Then you have to accept that France is almost systematically considered as the territory…

It’s an understatement to say that it’s not easy to be a French patent litigator in transnational litigation, in any case a good dose of humor is needed: how many jokes have I heard about our jurisdictional system? Then you have to accept that France is almost systematically considered as the territory at the bottom…

In my post “The German UPCA Ratification – at Schweinsgalopp towards Mautdebakel” on this blog, I cautioned the German Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection against ignoring the apparent political and legal problems with Germany ratifying the Unified Patent Court Agreement (UPCA) with the same wording as it had before Brexit and before the Federal…

In an earlier post we considered the general licensing and evaluation issues raised by a report issued in January 2021 by the EU Group of Experts on Standard Essential Patents (EU SEPs Expert Group). The present comment focuses on the transparency aspects highlighted by the Expert Group’s report. Transparency of Declarations In an ideal world…

At the beginning of the year, the Russian Government granted the first compulsory license on a series of Big Pharma’s patents.  For the first time ever, “public security” clause has been evoked. According to the Decree 3718-r, Pharmasintez JSC, a Russian generic company, has been granted a 1-year compulsory license to use Gilead’s patents protecting…

As of February 2021, it is still too early to have a clear and complete view of how the COVID-19 health, economic, and social crisis has affected patent filing trends and how innovation specifically dedicated to cope with the present “new normal” situation is the object of patent protection. This pandemic has prompted patent offices…