Book review: A valuable comparative overview on infringement of second medical use claims

Book review: A valuable comparative overview on infringement of second medical use claims

Journal Article

1 online resource (pages 365–366)

The discovery of a completely new active ingredient for the treatment of a disease is certainly a welcome occurrence, but such discoveries more often than not come about through happenstance. Pharma R&D therefore often rests its hopes on finding new uses for already known active ingredients. It is therefore not surprising that patent protection for such so-called ‘second medical use’ inventions is of great importance for pharmaceutical companies engaged in research. However, the legal approach to such ‘second medical use’ claims varies greatly from country to country, especially when questions of infringement (direct or indirect) are involved. A special legal problem occurs in case of so-called ‘skinny label products’. This term refers to generic drugs being approved for indications that are no longer patent-protected so that they can be launched on the market, before the patent on the original drug for other indications expires. In this context, however, it might happen that such products are in fact used for the still patent-protected indication (so-called cross-label use). The question various courts (in and outside Europe) had to evaluate was whether such practice leads to a direct or indirect infringement of the originator’s patent.

Intellectual Property Law & Practice, 20, 5, 2025.

Oxford, UK : Oxford University Press, 2025.

English

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External Online Journals > Journal of Intellectual Property Law and Practice