Bristol-Myers Squibb v Baker Norton Pharmaceuticals, 2001 RPC 1
Citation: Bristol-Myers Squibb v Baker Norton Pharmaceuticals, 2001 RPC 1
Rule of thumb: Is the method of using a medical product or drug a patentable idea? No, this is excluded from being patented.
Judgment:
The Court affirmed that there can be new products that do not entirely fit into exclusions listed in legislation. In this case it was recognised that there is a fine line between a new medical product, which is not patentable, and a medical drug, which is patentable, ‘... the methods of treatment exclusion... has the limited purpose of ensuring that use by practitioners of methods of medical treatment when treating patients should not be the subject of restraint or restriction by patent monopolies. The difficulty is whether the restraint concerns the method of treatment as opposed to that which is available for treatment...’.
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