Second Medical Use Claims In Mexico With The New European Format

It is widely known that the methods for the treatment of the human or animal body by means of therapy are excluded from patentability in most legislations around the world, and the Mexican law is not the exception.

Under Article 19 section VII of the Industrial Property Law (IPL), such methods are excluded from patentability since they are not considered as inventions. However, it is feasible to obtain patent protection in Mexico if method claims are amended into the Swiss-style format:

"The use of a substance X for the manufacture of a medicament for the treatment of a disease Y".

Europe has also opened the possibility of patenting known compounds that were previously unknown for use in treatment, thus giving rise to the first medical use claim, whose wording is as follows: