ABUSE OF PATENTABILITY CRITERIA WHEN PATENTING INVENTIONS RELATED TO MEDICINES

Abstract

It is well known that intellectual property monopolies for medicines reduce physical and economic availability. Main purpose of the study is to conduct brief review of foreign scholarly views on evergreening patenting practice in the field of pharmaceuticals, to demonstrate implications of such abusive practice and to exemplify good practices used in several countries to address the problem. Evergreening practice poses a serious challenge for healthcare system of Ukraine, but there are promising examples in several countries (e.g. Argentina, Brazil, India) of limiting evergreening.