European Patent Directive

Modop [Mobil Oil Direct Oxidation Process] A process for removing residual sulfur-containing gases from the tail gas from the Claus process. The catalyst is titanium dioxide pelletized with calcium sulfate. Developed in the 1980s by Rhone-Poulenc, Procatalyse, and Mobil Oil. Three plants were operating in Germany in 1995 and one in the United States. European Patents 60,742 78,690. 

Claims to products defined by a particular state of purity may cause difficulties at the European Patent Office where it has been held that a known product does not necessarily acquire novelty merely by virtue of the fact that it is prepared in a purer form However, if the claim is directed to product defined in terms of a technical feature e g. specific activity not present in the less pure known product, the potential difficulty may be overcome. The situation may be different in the USA where it has been held that purification of a protein to homogeneity was enough to distinguish a claim over a prior disclosure of only unpurified mixtures of native protein. 

Biotech Patenting Directive No. 98/44/EEC (30 July 1998) Official Journal of the European Communities No. 1998/L213. 

The utilization of patent information is, of course, promoted by diverse patent authorities. The European Patent Office (http //www.european-patent-office.org/) provides a service called esp cenet, which is easily accessible via the Internet (http //ep.espacenet.com/). In addition, inventors might conduct online file inspections via a service called epoline, which can be reached at http //www.epoline.org/. The user gains direct access to all published European patent applications and patents stored in electronic form. Patent information services are also offered by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (http //www.uspto.gov/). 

Gancet, C Preparation of Esters of Carboxylic Acids Directly From Carboxylic Acids and Alcohols Using a Catalyst System Comprising a Sulfonic Acid and a Polymer-Bound Tertiary Amine. European Patent 1,167,337, Jan 2, 2002. 

There are a variety of text sources for biomedical text mining (see table 6.1). Abstract collections are the text sources, or corpora, that are easiest to access. One can also collect full-text patent collections from the various resellers or from the Patent Authorities directly (U.S. Patent Office, European Patent Office, World Intellectual Property Office, etc.). Other sources include full-text journal articles, Web documents, and news articles. 

The European Biotechnology Directive, which must be adhered to by all EU member states and the EPO, sets out specific requirements for the industrial application of DNA patents. The directive states that an invention involving DNA must indicate the function of the DNA and in order to comply with the industrial application criterion, it is necessary in cases where a sequence or partial sequence of a gene is used to produce a protein or part of a protein, to specify which protein or part of a protein is produced or what function it performs [67]. 

P. Premoli, A. Manzoni and C. Calzi, Method for the Quantitative Determination of Calcium in Biological Fluids through Direct Potentiometry, European Patent No EP 0153783 Bl, October 30, 1991. 

Cady, S. M., Logan, J. S., Buckwalter, B. L., Stockton, G. W., and Chaleff, D. T., 1990, Stabilization of somatotropins by modification of cysteine residues utihzing site directed mutagenesis or chemical derivatization, European Patent Application 355,460. (American Cyanamid Co., assignee). 

Paparatto G., D Aloisio R., De Alberti G., et al. (2001) Catalyst and Process for the Direct Synthesis of Hydrogen Peroxide, European Patent EPl160196. Eni SpA-Polimeri Europa S.p.A. Assignee. 

The proposed European Directive (i.e., EU law) on the patenting of computer-implemented inventions [8] has led to a debate in Europe on the desirability of patents on software. The debate recently culminated in a vote by the European Parliament, which rejected the proposed legislation [9]. 

Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the patentability of Computer-Implemented Inventions, COM (2002) 92 final. Available from URL http //europa.eu.int/comm/internal market/en/indprop/comp/ com02-92en.pdf. 

The Future of Patenting Draft European Directive on the Legal Protection of Biotechnological Inventions... 

Traditionalty catecholamines have had a dual nomenclature (as a consequence of a company patenting the name Adrenalin), broadly European and N. American. The latter has been chosen by the World Health Organization as International Nonproprietary Names (INN) (see Ch. 6), and the European Union has directed member states to use INN. Because uniformity has not yet been achieved and because of the scientific literature, we use both. 

Because patents are limited in their effect in a specific country, a company with a pioneering drug may find itself suing patent infringers in a number of other countries. Usually these actions are in countries where the patent system is not as strong as that in the United States and the major European countries. The direct costs of patent litigation are usually lower outside the United States, but the time requirements can be just as extensive. 

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