Inventions, Genes and Napoleonic Victories

• Main Author: WEI, George S. S.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 1997
• Subjects: Intellectual Property Law
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/sol_research/607
• Institution: Singapore Management University

Recent years have seen a growing number of important English decisions concerning the law of patents. … A number of these cases are concerned with inventions arising out of recombinant DNA technology and their products. … The first of these cases is some seven years old: the decision of the Court of Appeal in Genentech Inc’s Patent. More recently, other genetic engineering cases have reached the courts… Of these, the dispute between Biogen Inc (Biogen) and Medeva Plc (Medeva) over the patentability of inventions relating to a test kit and vaccine for Hepatitis B infection has given the House of Lords, what may be considered to be, a relatively rare opportunity of clarifying some basic principles in patent law in connection with genetic engineering. Issues raised in the House of Lords include: the concept of invention, inventive step, priority date, enabling disclosure and support of patent claims by the description in the specifications filed in support of the application. … This article seeks to discuss some of these issues in the context of the decision of the House of Lords in the Biogen case and where appropriate to discuss the extent to which the decision will be of relevance to Singapore under the Patents Act 1994.