Hot Patent Issues a brief overview
For a long time, patents were the preserve of specialists rarely
making the headlines. This situation has dramatically changed in recent years.
Patents are often quoted in various contexts and are in many cases decried by
some interest groups. In addition, the globalisation of our economies causes
the emergence of new players that are increasingly using the patent system
causing new challenges. This module aims at providing readers with background
information on a selection of those issues and should raise your awareness on
the growing complexity of the patent system and the challenges it is facing.
All those issues are highly controversial and likely will continue to be
so.
Protection of new fields like computer
technologies
Can a one size patent fit all technical fields? When the patent
system was created, digital technologies governed by agile innovation rules did
not exist. Many wonder if the system is still fit to fulfil its innovation
promoting role for those modern technologies. This question is subject to a hot
debate still going on. One difficulty is to accurately substantiate the
economic contribution of patents on innovation and economic growth.
A
wikipedia page presenting this controversial issue
An IPR-Helpdesk briefing paper
An overloaded patent system
Patent Offices have difficulties dealing with an increasing flow of
new and more complex applications. In the US in particular, this issue is very
critical and jeopardises the viability of their current granting practices.
This problem can be addressed by Patent Offices better joining their forces to
reduce redundant prior art search and examinations. Other options consist in
developing pre-filtering mechanisms before an application is filed that reduce
the number of patent applications that have no chance to survive the granting
process. Everybody agrees that solutions should not to compromise the quality
of the granted patents.
An
article on the USPTO alarming backlog
Standards in combination with patents can be used to build
market power positions
When a technology becomes a standard its use becomes compulsory to
be marketable. Patents can protect such technologies. In those cases, the
patent holders are in an extremely strong position as there is no other option
than to license in their technology if you want to market the product. Those
situations are dispute prone and often make the headlines in the
telecommunication industry. The creation of patent pools shared by stakeholders
under fair terms is sometimes a peaceful solution.
A WIPO page listing some resources
Patents and accessing medicines
Pharmaceutical companies patent their products to recoup the
extremely high investments involved in the development and the launch of a new
drug. Recouping the investment increases the price of the drug and makes them
difficult to access by patients in poor countries badly needing this drug to
survive. Consequently, the patent system is often accused of not allowing easy
and cheap access to drugs. It is also very likely that investments for
developing new drugs will dramatically diminish if large corporations could not
recoup the hundreds million of dollars spent in R&D to launch a new drug.
Compulsory licenses can sometimes solve this problem.
An
extensive World Health Organisation report
An OXFAM paper on patents and patients
Growing role of China in the patent field
Today more than half of the patents originate from Japan, Korea and
China. China in particular knows extreme growth in patent filings and
litigations. This explosion will slowly move the epicentre of patent activities
to this region. One major challenge is accessing this data in English and being
able to litigate in China following similar procedures as in our countries. The
situation is moving very quickly on this front and often causes geopolitical
tensions.
On the growth
Accessing Chinese patent data
An EU Chinese funded initiative to promote common understanding and
practices
Traditional Knowledge
Patents are said to sometimes unduly protect knowledge that is
shared by a small or bigger group of persons in many cases in countries where
traditional medicine is used. The traditional knowledge not being widely
available in databases, it happens that patents are granted for something
already known for centuries by a restricted group. A lengthy opposition process
is usually necessary to revoke or adjust the patent rights to an adequate
innovative level. Some actions are currently undertaken to develop better
databases and to recognise indigenous groups who have contributed to a new
patent drug.
WIPO resources on TK
An
Indian initiative to create a TK database to prevent unduly granted
patents
Further reading
The Scenario Project of the EPO resulted in an extensive analysis
covering almost all issues faced by the patent system. It is a must read if you
want to gain a comprehensive overview of the possible evolutions of the patent
system in the coming years.
Access the extensive collection of documents
|
