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ARTICLE · 04 SEPTEMBER 2017

No extensions for Swiss style Pharma Patents in Australia

Norton Rose Fulbright Australia
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Patents containing "Swiss-style" claims are outside the scope of the Australian patent term extension regime.

AustraliaIntellectual Property
Helen Macpherson
Helen Macpherson
Rohan Sridhar
Rohan Sridhar
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A Full Court of the Federal Court has confirmed that patents containing "Swiss-style" claims are outside the scope of the Australian patent term extension regime in its recent judgment of Commissioner of Patents v AbbVie Biotechnology Ltd [2017] FCAFC 129.

What it means:

  • Patents which claim methods or processes involving pharmaceutical substances cannot be extended under the patent term extension regime. This includes Swiss-style claims for the use of a compound for the preparation or manufacture of a medicine for the treatment of a particular disease.
  • Swiss-style claims, which are common in the pharmaceutical field, particularly in the area of biologics, are therefore limited to 20 year terms.

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