Patents

This paper by Gaetan de Rassenfosse looks for traces of discrimination against foreigners in the patent prosecution process, building on earlier work. It focuses on the case of China, looking in particular at patent applications declared as essential to a technological standard, so called standard-essential patents (SEPs). It finds there is discrimination in the treatment of such patent applications, which are less likely to be granted and/or to take longer to grant.

The Patent Information Initiative for Medicines (Pat-INFORMED) provides a service to the global health community, particularly those involved in procurement of medicines, by facilitating easy access to medicine patent information. The data is provided directly by the biopharmaceutical companies and hosted by WIPO. Anyone can search the Pat-INFORMED database simply by entering a medicine’s INN (International Nonproprietary Name) to obtain relevant information about its patent status in a particular country. Innovation Council supports this effort to enhance transparency around patents and health technologies.

This September 2020 LeadershIP webinar features senior officials from the United States DOJ, PTO, and NIST discussing intellectual property protection and enforcement, and the relevance of competition rules to IP licensing, in the wireless technology sector.  Among other topics, the speakers discuss the challenge of patent hold-out, whereby standard essential patent (SEP) owners face unwilling licensees engaged in ongoing infringement of their IPRs, and confirm their shared view that injunctive relief should be available without restrictions for SEPs.