Law Reviews

In the rapidly evolving world of intellectual property law, getting registration of patents and trademarks is a set procedure; the real challenge rests in the acquisition of the desired scope of protection and enforcement of rights. At PakPat, we recognized this challenge and took the momentous step of updating our existing and potential clients about the changes taking place in the Pakistan IP laws through our monthly law reviews, newsletters and general circulations, especially in areas that may directly or indirectly affect our clients’ valuable IP rights. We feel proud in issuing from time to time newsletters/IP law reviews since 2000. Sometimes our readers have to wait for the next issue but this is not intentional. Waiting for a judicial decision or happening of an event to bring to light makes it so. 

Newsletters/ IP Law reviews

2014

  • Issues relating to the patent-eligibility of secondary inventions in Pakistan in the backdrop of Novartis Indian Glivec patent decision (March, 2014)
  • Non-obviousness standard in determining inventiveness of pharmaceutical inventions in Pakistan (February, 2014)
  • The anatomy of anticipatory prior art in Pakistan (January, 2014)

2013

  • Patentability issues relating to prodrugs and metabolite inventions in Pakistan (May, 2013)
  • Latest developments concerning patentability of transgenic plants and animals in Pakistan (April, 2013)

  • Division for dividing-out, not for widening-out of patent claims in Pakistan (March, 2013)

  • Some issues surrounding the law on patentability of genetically modified plants and plants produced by non-biological processes in Pakistan (February, 2013)

  • Modifications shifting the centre of gravity of the claimed invention sideways are not permissible in Pakistan (January, 2013)

2012

  • Product or product-by-process patents – liability for infringement set to be absolute in Pakistan (May-June, 2012)

  • “Inter-partes” proceedings involving patents in Pakistan (April, 2012)

  • Legal position regarding data protection and data exclusivity in pharmaceutical and agricultural chemical products in Pakistan (March, 2012)

  • Threshold of improvement and/or modification of an initial breakthrough to secure patents-of-addition in Pakistan (February, 2012)

  • “Grace periods” in the Pakistan patent law (January, 2012)

2011

  • Existing controversies regarding the extension of term of patents granted under the old act of 1911 in Pakistan (June-July, 2011)

  • Bio-prospecting: Pakistan patent law treats contribution of indigenous knowledge as “non-inventive” (April-May, 2011)

  • Diagnostic, therapeutic and surgical methods of treatment – residual scope of exclusion needs re-affirmation in Pakistan (March, 2011)

  • Patentability and breadth of protection for biotech patents in Pakistan (February, 2011)

  • Prior user rights – balancing competing interests or generating competitors in Pakistan (January, 2011)

2010

  • Insufficiency of disclosure striking at the validity of a patent in Pakistan (September, 2010)

  • New challenges to the validity of pharmaceutical patents in Pakistan (August, 2010)

  • An overview of civil remedies available for patent infringement in Pakistan (July, 2010)

  • Some issues surrounding the law on non-exploitation or insufficient exploitation of patented inventions in Pakistan (April, 2010)

  • Passivity in prosecution, pre-grant oppositions and growing delays for regulatory approval shrinking the effective patent term in Pakistan (March, 2010)

  • Potential risks of lowering the threshold for protection through estoppels created by the patent prosecution history in Pakistan (January, 2010)

2009

  • An interaction of Pakistan patent and competition laws to minimize the potential for patent misuse (September, 2009)

  • Compulsory patent licensing: sharing the patentee’s power to act as a monopolist in Pakistan (August, 2009)

  • Limitations on the exclusive rights to dispose of the patented products in Pakistan (July, 2009)

  • Interpretative uncertainties accentuating the problems in determining the scope of patent infringement in Pakistan (June, 2009)

  • Unstatutory restrictions on drafting the scope of product patents for NCEs undermining confidence in the patent office’s granting procedure in Pakistan (May, 2009)

  • Pre-grant oppositions by generics increasing legal uncertainties for applicants and patent owners in Pakistan (April, 2009)

  • Risk of lowering the threshold for protection of medicinal use inventions in Pakistan (March, 2009)

  • Research tool patents and activities exceeding the safe harbor for their free use in Pakistan (February, 2009)

  • Improper amendments exposing the validity of patent into risk in Pakistan (January, 2009)