Patent law protection of inventions in medicine and pharmaceutical industry

Simply saying, inventions represent new solutions to technical problems. The word “technique” means “restraining of natural forces and controlled use of natural phenomena” , that is “human activity in the field of material phenomena characterized by space, time, matter and energy” . Thus, the technique is, actually, human activity to master and control nature. Once the domain of technique was confined to nonliving nature. Yet, today, it has been considered that technique also comprises the activities in the field of living beings, although the patent law protection cannot be realized in domain of those biological processes which cannot be influenced, that is, controlled in a way that their repetition under same conditions would yield the same results . There are two basic types of inventions: inventions of products and inventions of processes. These are the products and processes that have never been comprised in the state of the art (they have never been exposed to public in any form). The particular sorts of inventions are inventions of use. They refer to the technical instructions as for the manner of application of an already existing product, or an already known process, but for a new technical purpose . The inventions are generally protected by patent law, but not all of them. There are three groups of inventions that cannot be legally protected: the commercial application of which would be contrary to "ordre public" or morality; related to methods for treatment of the human or animal body by surgery or therapy and diagnostic methods practiced on the human or animal body; related to plant and animal varieties or essentially biological processes for the production of plants or animals. The inventions of the products such as substances or compositions used for diagnostic, surgical and healing purposes are not excluded from patent protection. In other words, the inventions related to drugs and medical means can be registered as patents. A patent constitutes a set of exclusive rights granted to the inventor in a sense that they prevent others to exploit the patented invention without permission – though not for an indefinite period of time, but usually for the period of 20 years. The exceptions are the inventions of human and animal drugs and medicines whose term of protection may be extended if their sale has to be previously authorized and approved by relevant government bodies. This article is divided in three parts. The first part deals with the inventions of surgery, therapy and diagnostic methods applied to humans and animals. The second part, considers the patents for invention of products (i.e. drugs and medical means) in surgery, therapy and diagnostic to be used in surgery, methods applied on humans and animals. Finally, the third part, reviews the issue of the extended term of patent protection for inventions of drugs for humans and animals.