
Contents
Preface to the Sixth Edition
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Published:December 2016
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As it is now over ten years since I was last actively employed in the patent profession, I felt that I needed the assistance of co-authors who are still active, or at least very recently retired, to keep the book up to date on recent developments. Peter Thomsen, who was co-author of the previous edition, and who is a European Patent Attorney and an expert on the interplay between regulatory and patent law, is mainly responsible for Chapter 24. My former Novartis colleague Thomas Hoxie, qualified both as a US and a European Patent Attorney, has contributed an update of all aspects of US law and practice, especially Chapter 25. Finally, Gordon Wright, who has long experience as a European Patent Attorney in the pharmaceutical industry, and who recently retired from private practice, has contributed to passages on UK and European law.
There have indeed been many new developments since the last edition appeared. Some are positive, such as the fundamental change in US patent law from a first- to-invent system to one of ‘first-inventor-to-file’, implying the gradual disappearance of interference proceedings. Others are less so, including some recent case law both in the US and in the European Patent Office. One at least is catastrophic. The result of the UK referendum of 23 June 2016 means that the UK will almost certainly leave the EU by the end of 2019 at the latest. There was no time to deal with this situation at length in the book, but a short preface at page xxv outlines the likely effects on UK patent law. Other aspects of IP, particularly trademarks and copyright, but also matters such as competition law, orphan drug protection, and parallel imports, will be even more affected.
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