Norway (in addition to Finland) only accepted product patents on
active ingredients in medicaments from 1. January 1992. Prior to
this date only "analogous method of preparation" type of
claims where accepted. This means that we still have active patents
in Norway comprising such claims until the end of 2011 and
Supplementary Protection Certificates (SPCs) until the end of 2016
(July 2017 if pediatric extensions is included).Because of this
Norway is an interesting market for producers of generic
medicaments produced by synthetic routs which differ from, and
thereby not infringe, the methods claimed and exemplified by the
patent owner. There are several recent examples of copy medicines
in the Norwegian market for which the patent owner has failed to
stop the providers to enter the Norwegian market with their generic
products.
