(598)  PATENTS REVOKED  

PATENTS REVOKED  

Full-blown patent actions are rare in Scotland, and ones in which are patents are revoked even rarer, so Arrow Generics Ltd, Petitioners [2006] CSOH 146, a decision of Lord Glennie published on 15 September 2006, must be noted.  The case concerned pharmaceutical patents for a pure form of a drug called tibolone, used for treating menopausal complaints, modulating the immune system and combating osteoporosis.  One challenge was based upon lack of novelty, thanks to a 1984 paper by Declerq and van Meersche in the Journal of the Royal Netherlands Chemical Society.  A nice moment comes in para 21 of Lord Glennie’s opinion, when he is discussing the evidence of an expert witness who had argued that the structure determined by Declercq et al could not be called that of Form I until Form II was discovered