Categories of patents

The analysis identified three broad categories of patents that raise questions about whether they fall within the class the Hatch-Waxman Amendments defines as listable in the Orange Book. These categories, which are more fully explained in Appendix H, are ... 

In principle (38), the Section 103 requirement of unobviousness is no different in chemical cases than with respect to other categories of patent-able inventions. ... 

Patent Criteria. Patent criteria are applied to determine whether a product or process described in a patent application is an invention. If the product or process fails to meet the criteria, the innovation is not patentable. The deliberation on whether an invention meets the patent criteria is distinct from whether the invention falls within the category of patentable subject matter. An invention may meet all the patent criteria, but its subject matter may fall into a category that a priori cannot receive patent protection. 

Besides primary patents that are basic patents that cannot be circumvented and whose expiry has to be waited for, there are other categories of patents that may appear as severe hurdles. One example is the pharmaceutical formulation of therapeutic proteins, a dangerous minefield also for classical generics. Numerous patents claim distinct product-specific formulations. These inventions are related to a more advanced development stage, and they usually expire several years later. I believe that some of the biogeneric players are not fully aware of this difficult situation. Again, it requires specific experience to find a gap within a dense net of formulation patents. The biogeneric products will probably appear... 

We conclude this chapter and wrap up the last three chapters with a few remarks about the application of the ideas contained herein to polymer technology. Chapters 2-4 have been concerned with various aspects of the mechanical states of polymers. The opinion was expressed in Chap. 1 that if polymers did not possess the mechanical properties they have, this whole class of compounds might be relegated to the category of laboratory curiosities. On the basis of any number of criteria-the number of scientists employed, the number of industries involved, the number of publications released, the number of patents issued—polymer science proves to be very viable indeed. 

Photochromic Organic Dyes. Intensive investigations into this category of substances have led to numerous patent appHcations. Copper—phthalocyanine pigments, organic dyes based on cyanine (Ricoh, Pioneer), naphthochinone (Nippon Denki), and ben2othiopyrane (Sony) (123) have been described. They did not lead, however, to any commercial use. Surveys on the possibiUties of optical data storage with photochromic dyes can be found (124,125). 

With the current prevalence of computer Hterature searching, it is relatively easy to accomplish patent searches, especiaUy in Chemicaly hstracts (CAS). In heu of what would be an extensive Ust of patent references to the many appHcations for VP homo- and copolymers, a Ust of the major categories and the number of patents granted in each of them during the period 1989—1995 is given in Table 17. More detail concerning the patents is provided in Reference 27. 

Electronic Materials. Applications of photopolymer technology to electronic products is probably one of the largest imaging categories in terms of sales and total number of patents and publications. A wide variety of products have been developed for the production of printed wiring boards (PWB) and the manufacture of integrated circuits (IC). 

Composition measurement, 77 785 Composition of matter category, in patents, 78 165-166... 

Design category, in patents, 18 166 Design codes, for tanks, 24 303 Design deficiencies, as a cause of tank spills and leaks, 24 309... 

Pregnancy Category B (ethacrynic acid, torsemide) Category C (furosemide, bumetanide). Since furosemide may increase the incidence of patent ductus arteriosus in preterm infants with respiratory-distress syndrome, use caution when administering before delivery. 

The final category of proposals consists of suggestions for hybridizing end-to-end, pay-as-you-go, and/or conventional patent incentives within a single strategy. Today s Private-Public Partnerships frequently use sponsor money to subsidize commercial R D programs when conventional patent incentives are thought to be inadequate (Pharmaceutical R D Policy Project 2005). 

As the large number of patents in the X-ray collimator field reveals, it is by no means a trivial exercise to design a collimator optimally satisfying the constraints imposed by the above factors. It is unfortunately beyond the scope of this chapter to discuss the science of collimator design ( collimatology ) except that it is customary to group X-ray collimation techniques into two main categories, i.e. direct and reconstructive. These possibilities are summarized in Sections 4.2 and 4.3. 

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