Workshop on Patentability Criteria

On 27 October 2015, the World Health Organization, the World Intellectual Property Organization and the WTO jointly organized a technical workshop on patentability criteria. It provided participants with practical insights into how the main substantive patentability criteria are applied in practice at country level and how different definitions and interpretations can impact on public health.

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The aim was to support participants to engage in a policy debate that is characterized by its highly technical nature and assist them to appropriately frame and assess national patent systems and practices. To do so, the three collaborating agencies provided a brief overview of the legal framework at multilateral, regional and national level. This was followed by an interactive session led by a practitioner who presented and discussed a number of practical cases. The final discussion provided an opportunity to look at matters of public interest and concerns with respect to the design and application of patentability criteria at country level and potential repercussions on public health.

The Workshop took place back to back with the WHO-WIPO-WTO Symposium on “Public Health, Intellectual Property, and TRIPS at 20: Innovation and Access to Medicines; Learning from the Past, Illuminating the Future” that was held at the WTO on 28 October 2015.

PROGRAMME

14h00 — 14h10	Welcome and introduction
14h10 — 15h15	Patentability criteria and public health Patentability criteria pursuant to the TRIPS Agreement Roger Kampf, Counsellor, Intellectual Property Division, WTO Presentation Patentability criteria and patent grant procedures at country level Tomoko Miyamoto, Head, Patent Law Section, WIPO Presentation Impact of patentability criteria on public health Peter Beyer, Senior Advisor, Department of Essential Medicines & Health Products, WHO Presentation Q&A Audio
15h15 — 17h00	Application of patentability criteria to concrete pharmaceutical patent cases Markus Engelhard, Boehmert & Boehmert, Munich/Germany Presentation Audio
17h00 — 18h00	Open discussion on patentability criteria and domestic needs Moderator: Antony Taubman, Director, Intellectual Property Division, WTO Audio