Jeremiah Frueauf
Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox P.L.L.C.
USA
Title: Protecting your animal healthcare products: Patent eligibility challenges in the USA and Europe
Biography
Biography: Jeremiah Frueauf
Abstract
With the global animal healthcare market expected to exceed USD 40,000 million by 2020, the need to protect the underlying products will never be greater. Patents, among other forms of intellectual property, play a key role protecting products in this industry. However, recent decisions by USA courts have cast a cloud over several tools used for animal healthcare. For example, the USA Supreme Court's Myriad decision and subsequent rulings by the lower courts upended well-settled expectations in the USA regarding the patent eligibility of nature-based products, including polypeptides, polynucleotides, microorganisms and the products that they create. The USA is not alone in experiencing a significant disruption of patent law, as Europe went through a similar upheaval about 10 years ago. And while the law on patent eligibility at the European Patent Office (EPO) is now largely settled, the situation in the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is less certain at present. An understanding of the similarities and differences between the EPO and USPTO is critical to a comprehensive patent portfolio strategy needed to succeed in the global animal healthcare market. This presentation will provide a summary of the EPO’s and USPTO’s approaches to examining patents in animal healthcare, including application of the USPTO’s examining guidelines to the tools used in and products made by the industry.