(In)accuracy of using US and Canadian patent registers for determining medicines' patent status globally: A call for global patent transparency on essential and lifesaving medicines

Name of Lead Author: Reed Beall
Additional Author: Amir Attaran
Organization: University of Ottawa
Country: Canada

(In)accuracy of using US and Canadian patent registers for determining medicines' patent status globally: A call for global patent transparency on essential and lifesaving medicines

ABSTRACT

Objective:
There is no international medicine patent register. A common method for determining the patent status of medicines internationally is to use the patent information available in the national medicine patent registers of the United States and Canada to retrieve related ones abroad through international patent databases (e.g., INPADOC or Derwent) that group related patents globally (called the “linkage methodology here). This approach has never been formally evaluated against company records. The study provides such an assessment.

Please e-mail reedbeall@gmail.com for a draft copy.