Product, Process and Use Patents

The separation of patent claims into those on a product.a process or on use is not only a theoretical division in practice these three categories are of great importance for the enforcement of a patent. They differ considerably in their effectiveness to exclude competitors from using the invention. 

Process patents contain methods to prepare substances. Possible examples in the context of biomedicines are, e.g. isolation or purification methods, cell culture techniques, attenuation schemes and other more directed genetic manipulations of microorganisms, cloning techniques, and expression techniques for recombinant polypeptides. Since process patents are usually admitted in countries where certain products cannot be patented (see Table 9), process claims are a possibility to protect inventions in these countries. 

Process patents can be difficult to enforce due to the fact that an infringement is less overt. Furthermore, process patents are easier to circumvent. Once a new and attractive method is disclosed, it stimulates others to invent around the disclosed process, which is legal 

But even the best possible process patent does not preclude others from exercising the invention in a country where patent protection is not available, no patent application was made, the particular invention was not patentable, or an available patent cannot be properly enforced. Since a mere process patent does not always cover the product derived from this process, the product may be imported and sold in countries which are covered by the process patent. Certain South and Central American states as well as some Eastern European countries with restricted patentability of pharmaceuticals and chemicals are the base of companies which exploit this situation, particularly with regard to products covered only by process patents. 

Whenever products which are made by an invented process are new, useful and non-obvious (e.g. have advantages over existing products), the products derived from the inventive process should be included in the patent claims. Combined process and product patents are quite common, in fact many countries including the USA and the EPO extend patent protection to the products directly obtained from a patented process. 

---

Patent types can be subdivided into Product , Process and Use patents. In the first case, a specific substance is patented (e.g. a revolutionary new car engine, a new cytokine with applicability in cancer treatment, a novel microorganism capable of degrading oil, etc.). In the... 

---