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The Debate on the Waiver of Patents for Vaccines Against SARS-CoV-2

The subject that we have already written about in our previous Legal Reports — the suspension of patent protection for vaccines against the SARS-CoV-2 virus (see: Patent rights: an obstacle for development of a vaccine against COVID-19? (WTS Legal Report No. 15/2020) and What is permitted under the TRIPS Agreement when it comes to the scarcity of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines? (WTS Legal Report No....

New medical uses: the basic information

The patentability requirements have already been extensively covered in our publications: let us remind you that according to Article 24 of the Act of 30 June 2000 - Industrial Property Law (hereinafter: IPL), patents are granted for inventions that satisfy the criteria of novelty, inventive step, and industrial application. As for novelty, more detailed rules for its assessment are provided...

Patent licensing

Under Article 66 Section 2 of the Act of 30 June 2000 - Industrial Property Law (hereinafter as IPL), a patent holder can give to another person a contractual authorization (a license) to use their invention (a licensing agreement). In this article in the series "Patents Without Secrets" we would like to present you the key information regarding licensing agreements in the Polish patent law:...

What is permitted under the TRIPS Agreement when it comes to the scarcity of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines?

In last December we published an issue of our Legal Report concerning the legal aspects of development of vaccines against the SARS-CoV-2 virus. We wrote in it about the race of pharmaceutical companies — at that moment back then only several weeks had passed since Moderna and Pfizer submitted first motions for emergency authorisations of their products and the optimistic news about...

The extended scope of patent rights: Articles 64 and 65 of the IPL

The most recent posts in our cycle "Patents Without Secrets" concerned the limitations to patent rights; this time we would like to present you the other side of the coin: namely, situations wherein the legislator allows for the extension of the scope of protection. In other terms, we would like discuss in which cases we will be dealing with the indirect patent protection. The indirectness of...

New guidelines published by the President of the Polish Patent Office

In October 2020 the Polish Patent Office (PPO) published the latest version of the President’s guidelines regarding inventions and utility models. The guidelines elaborate quite often on certain matters that are not expressly addressed in relevant statuary and executive provisions, they suggest possible directions for interpretation of binding law, and specify numerous formal and technical...

The Unified Patent Court: A new episode in the long-running series

The Unified Patent Court and innumerable obstacles on the way to its launch have already been featured in our Legal Reports (see: WTS Legal Report No. 6/2020 and WTS Legal Report No. 7/2020). We decided that, at the beginning of the new year, it is worth to return to this controversial subject and present our take on the recent developments in this series that has already been running for...

Patent rights: an obstacle for development of a vaccine against COVID-19?

Recently we have been anxiously following a race of major pharmaceutical concerns: who would be the first to develop an effective vaccine against COVID-19? On 8 November Pfizer announced that their vaccine has an effectivity rate of 90%; just a week later Moderna "outbid" it, boasting 94,5% effectivity rate of their product. The dominant narrative emphasizes the common effort of the whole...

Limitations to patent rights: compulsory licenses in the Polish legal system

Both Polish and international law provide certain institutions that — even though not extensively used in practice — allow to interfere with a patent holder's exclusive right to use an invention. We would like to dedicate this entry in our cycle Patents Without Secrets to offer you an overview of the Polish regulation in the area of compulsory licenses. This issue gains particular...

First filing requirement in Poland

Many states adopt in their legislation certain limitations when it comes to permissibility of filing patent applications before foreign offices: usually they are imposed on citizens of those countries or their residents; they can apply as well to inventions developed within their territories. Such regulations of given states provide that the first filing for an invention must take place with...