Don't Take "No" For An Answer: Surgery And Diagnosis

Chapter excerpt from the ebook MedTech IP: Lessons and Strategies for Success - view all chapters here.

The European Patent Convention (EPC) decrees that European patents shall not be granted in respect of:

"methods for treatment of the human or animal body by surgery or therapy and diagnostic methods practised on the human or animal body ..."

With some variations, similar provisions apply in other jurisdictions all over the world. This is often understood to be a significant barrier to large swathes of patent protection within MedTech circles, but is it really a barrier?

It is important to understand that this exclusion relates only to certain methods, and not to medical devices and products. In fact, there are actually more European patent applications published in the areas of surgery and diagnosis than in any other area of MedTech. This is illustrated in the following graph, which shows the number of published European patent applications over recent