Indian Patent Office Issues The Much Awaited Examination Guidelines For Pharmaceuticals

Impetus

When we foray into the world of pharmaceutical patents, many contentions raise their heads. Once the product patent regime came into force in India, the road ahead seemed fraught with difficulties. Time and again the doors of the courts have been knocked for explanation, for intervention and for redressal. In view of the same, the endeavor of the Government to bring out pharmaceutical guidelines is worth applause. A copy of the guidelines published by the Indian Patent Office on October, 29, 2014 can be found here

We would like to bring out the highlights of the pharmaceutical guidelines.

Novelty

As regards Assessment of Novelty, it has been stated that while assessing novelty, it is generally not permitted to combine separate items of prior art together, unless such combination has specifically been suggested or essentially linked to one another. If a Markush formula covers innumerable compound and if some of the compound fall within one prior art