POLSCI 3IP3 Exam Unit 3 - Patents

What is a Patent

gives an inventor or his or her assignee a set of exclusive rights to Make / construct, Use, and Sell an invention

Fundamental Concepts of Patents

must register and 20 years of protection

What can you get a patent for?

• Art
• Process
• Machine
• Manufacture
• Composition of matter
• Improvement thereof

What do patents not apply to?

Scientific principle or abstract theorems;
mathematical formulae;
computer calculations;
methods of medical treatments;
professional skills;
Contrary to the laws of nature

What is the TRIPs Agreement?

established standards for the international protection of intellectual property rights
• The difference from other IP conventions: enforcement

Oncomouse: Harvard College v. Canada

genetically modified mouse created to be susceptible to a particular type of cancer - granted a patent in US but not Canada because Parliament didn't intend to include higher life forms

Patent use: Canada vs USA

• First sale doctrine (US)
• Doctrine of exhaustion (Canada)

First sale doctrine (US)

limits the rights of an intellectual property owner to control resale of products embodying its intellectual property.

Doctrine of exhaustion (Canada)

patent owner's exclusive rights of the patented product have been exhausted once a sale has been mad

history of patents canada

England:
14C: Letters patent (monopolies): On making starch, On selling wine, On selling playing cards

1624: Letters patent void Except inventions - 14 yrs

1700s: disclosure required

Early patents: James Watt's steam engine (1769)• The spinning wheel, invented by Richard Arkwright (also 1769

How do you get a patent?

You must register

Term of protection

20 years from filing date

Novelty

Is the invention new?

Useful

Is it commercially successful?, does it work

Non-obvious

is this new invention obvious?
Would it be obvious to an unimaginative technician skilledin the field

Disclosure

Can't have already been disclosed by someone else or by inventor

Inventive step?

No: products of nature
Yes: life-forms that do not occur naturally innature

Patenting Life: 1st cases

US: Diamond v. Chakrabarty (1980)
Canada Re: Application of Abitibi Co. (1982)

Diamond v. Chakrabarty (1980)

Ruled that a man-made life form (genetic engineering) could be patented.
- Patent given for micro-organism capable of breaking down crude oil,proposed for treating oil spills

Re: Application of Abitibi Co. (Canada, 1982)

Yeast culture to digest the waste from a pulp and paperplant was given a paten

Access to Medicine

Some argue: Problem is not IP; it's know-how &production and distribution systems

Compulsory licence

Patent owner must grant a licence (government grants a licence for them, with the fees paid to the patent owner)

Access to medicine solutions

• Get rid of patents for drugs - no longer possible under TRIPs
• Generic drugs - restrained (all countries must offer 20-yrterm)
• Compulsory licence - stringent conditions under TRIPs• Domestic market only

TRIPs Agreement

patents shall be available for any inventions, whetherproducts or processes, in all fields of technology, providedthat they are new, involve an inventive step and arecapable of industrial application