Ventose makes a fresh, lively and incredibly thorough contribution to the literature in this work. He canvasses the European, English and American authorities in a systematic, methodical and dare I say surgical manner. The book is a must read for practitioners, academics and students alike interested in patentable subject matter, public policy and medico-legal ethics. It will be a welcome addition to any legal collection. Emir Aly Crowne, University of Windsor, Barrister & Solicitor, Law Society of Upper Canada and Co-Founder and Co-Chair, Harold G. Fox Intellectual Property Moot Medical patents are a matter of life and death. Such patents have a critical impact upon patient care, medical research, and the administration of healthcare (and, indeed, are in part responsible for ballooning health care budgets). This comprehensive book by Eddy D. Ventose provides a systematic comparative analysis of medical patents. The work explores the historical taboo against patenting methods of human treatment; charts the spectrum of policy positions on medical patents, ranging from permissive to prohibitive; and examines contemporary battles over patenting methods of medical correlation in the Supreme Court of United States. Matthew Rimmer, The Australian National University College of Law and ACIPA, Australia This book provides a detailed and comparative examination of medical patent law and the issues at the heart of the medical treatment exclusion for therapeutic treatments, surgical treatments and diagnostic methods. It firsts considers the historical basis for exclusion and the development of law and policy in Europe, the United States and other commonwealth countries. The book goes on to provide a detailed analysis of the issues related to new medical technologies, such as gene therapy, dosage regimes, and medical diagnostics, in light of the medical treatment exclusion. Medical Patent Law will strongly appeal to patent agents and attorneys, solicitors and barristers working in patent and intellectual property law and medical law worldwide, as well as medical practitioners and healthcare professionals; scientists, researchers and managers in the chemicals, medical; pharmaceuticals and biotechnology industries. Postgraduates on LLM medical law and intellectual property courses and academics specializing in medical law or patent law, will also find much to interest them.

In the last two decades, accelerating technological progress, increasing economic globalization and the proliferation of international agreements have created new challenges for intellectual property law. In this collection of articles in honor of Professor Joseph Straus, more than 60 scholars and practitioners from the Americas, Asia and Europe provide legal, economic and policy perspectives on these challenges, with a particular focus on the challenges facing the modern patent system. Among the many topics addressed are the rapid development of specific technical fields such as biotechnology, the relationship of exclusive rights and competition, and the application of territorially limited IP laws in cross-border scenarios.

This study has emerged from an ongoing program of trilateral cooperation between WHO, WTO and WIPO. It responds to an increasing demand, particularly in developing countries, for strengthened capacity for informed policy-making in areas of intersection between health, trade and IP, focusing on access to and innovation of medicines and other medical technologies.

Biotechnology is one of the most promising fields of technology, especially since molecular biology methods have enhanced our knowledge of genes, their structure, and their action. This knowledge makes it possible to change genetic material and construct new varieties of cultural plants and animals for various purposes such as nutrition, scientific and medical experimentation, and treatment of human diseases. Such inventions may even include human genes. The understandable desire to have legal protection in this domain has created new problems - especially from the viewpoint of the law and acquiring patents for these new inventions. These problems are under wide discussion and are often controversial. This volume provides a unique overview of the current problems and opinions in this controversial field.

This book offers an analysis of the interpretation of the WTO TRIPS Agreement and its impact on the right to health. It furthers understanding of WTO jurisprudence and researches the topic in a broad framework of international law. It examines the extent to which the patent protections in the TRIPS Agreement are consistent with the right to health, and in particular with access to medicine. It helps to underpin an understanding of the relationship between human rights law and intellectual property law – specifically between the right to health and patent protection. It usefully analyses the relationship between TRIPS and the right to health and develops an understanding of interpretive techniques for use within WTO dispute settlement.

The book engages with a broad range of new case studies, providing a detailed examination of options for the resolution of access-to-medicine issues at global, national and local levels. In addition, the book reflects the significant progress in international and national patent law and in international policy-making in this area.