Intellectual Property Considerations

The identification and optimisation of drug-like small molecule inhibitors for kinase targets is a highly competitive arena and given the high level of structural similarity across family members it is unsurprising that the intellectual property landscape has become crowded, especially around some of the more validated targets. The situation is particularly apparent for type I kinase 

Hantschel, M. A. Young, K. Scheffzek, D. Veach, W. Bornmann, B. Clarkson, G. Superti-Furga and J. Kuriyan, Cell, 2003, 112, 859. 

The Learning and Evolution of Medicinal Chemistry against Kinase Targets 

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Both prototypal questions related illustrate the need for a successhil technical service professional to have a strong understanding of the customer s apphcations and processes, within proper intellectual property considerations. This need for a thorough understanding is not always straightforward. A common example of the complications that can arise is provided from the paint (qv) industry (11). If, for instance, a calcium carbonate suppHer would like a paint manufacturer to use their material versus a competitive one, the onus is on the suppHer to show that the material can be successfully used in the paint formula of interest. However, many such formulas are held as proprietary. The technical service professional therefore does not know the components of the paint. This would lead to an unworkable situation from an evaluation standpoint save for the fact that the paint company may supply a miHbase or other intermediate form of the paint to allow a proper comparison of carbonates to be carried out. Thus mutual benefits can result and no loss of proprietary information occur. 

The future price of ionic liquids will also reflect intellectual property considerations. While the currently most frequently requested ionic liquids, the tetrafluoroborate and hexafluorophosphate ionic liquids, are all patent-free, many recently developed, new ionic liquid systems are protected by state of matter patents. Table 2.2-2 gives an overview of some examples published after 1999. 

The commodification of traditional knowledge poses problems that also transcend intellectual property considerations since, in indigenous communities, medicinal plants can have cultural, symbolic and ritual values that go beyond a simple medicinal or economic use. Thus, the cultivation of a plant outside its natural habitat and the capture of its medicinal properties into a commercial product can generate mistrust, inequality and betrayal because the loss of the cultural value is not addressed by any monetary compensation. These problems have been exemplified by the development of Hoodia gordo-nii,46 a sacred life force of the South African San, which was turned into a commercial slimming aid .47... 

For both similarity-searching and privileged-structure strategies, it was correctly pointed out that intellectual property considerations can become a capital issue [8], This stresses again the above-mentioned need for scaffold hopping and bioisostere-identification methods and also the value of proprietary chemical and biological data [114-117]. 

Farnley and colleagues [96] have recently reviewed the complexity of intellectual property around biotechnology and biotechnology products. The authors note that the IP issues for small molecules and macromolecules, with a few exceptions, may be more similar than commonly assumed. The most important difference relevant to this overview is that each step in the discovery process may potentially be subject to different intellectual property considerations, which the authors note as unusual. The major differences between small-molecule and macromolecule patenting are shown in Table 1.3-11. 

TABLE 1.3-11. Intellectual Property Considerations for Small Molecules and Macromolecules... 

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