Patent term extensions: a new book, hot off the press

Let no-one accuse The SPC Blog of being slow to being you the news. Only a few minutes ago a new publication was launched, which may be of great interest and relevance to most of this blog's readers. It's titled Ergänzende Schutzzertifikate - Patent Term Extensions: USA, Japan, EU, Germany, Korea, Taiwan, Switzerland, Australia, Israel, Russia and Singapore and it's a bilingual text put together for our benefit by Dr Arne Markgraf. It's published for the very modest sum -- for a specialist law book -- of 134 euro. Oh, yes, and you can order it from the website of publishers Nomos here.

According to the abstract

Patent term extensions are the most important instrument for securing rights to innovative medicines after expiry of the regular patent term. The new manual comments on all relevant provisions including the relevant case law in the U.S., Japan and Europe. In addition, it presents corresponding extension opportunities in Australia, Israel, Korea, Russia, Switzerland, Singapore, Taiwan and in the free trade agreement between the U.S. and the Central American countries. It also comments on the current state of negotiations on the Free Trade Agreement between the European Union and Canada. So the manual covers all important markets, which offer the possibility of a patent term extension. It is aimed at lawyers from pharmaceutical companies and international law firms.

Its bilingual German/English synoptic structure is tailored to support the global development of innovative medicines. It facilitates the decision-making in international project teams through a rapid and easy access to all relevant information. It also assists to find uniform argumentation during grant or revocation proceedings across borders.

Many of the contributors of chapters will be known to readers of this blog. Apart from the editor himself you will encounter the efforts of

• Cheol-Gyoon Ahn, Senior Korean Patent Attorney, Seoul, Korea 
• Eran Bareket, Attorney at law, Tel-Aviv, Israel 
• Chen Ben Dori-Alkan, Attorney at Law, Tel-Aviv, Israel
• Ronnie Benshafrut, Patent Attorney, Tel-Aviv, Israel 
• Ruth Fang, Attorney at law, Taipei, Taiwan 
• Dr. Nicolai von Füner, Patent Attorney, Munich, Germany
• Dr. Siegfried Grimm, Patent Attorney, Zürich, Switzerland 
• Brion P. Heaney, Patent Attorney, Arlington, USA 
• In-Hwan Kim, Senior Foreign Legal Counsel, Seoul, Korea 
• Peter Maddigan, Barrister, Sydney, Australia 
• Dr. Arne Markgraf, Attorney at law, Berlin, Germany 
• Dr. Olaf Meiselmann, Munich, Germany 
• Kristian Robinson, Patent Attorney, Singapore 
• Dr. Regula Rüedi, Patent Attorney, Zürich, Switzerland 
• Harry B. Shubin, Patent Attorney, Arlington, USA 
• Damian Slizys, Patent Attorney, Melbourne, Australia 
• Yoichi Watanabe, Patent Attorney, Tokyo, Japan 
• Paul Whenman, Patent Attorney, Sydney, Australia

The SPC Blog looks forward to reviewing this book in due course.