Why You Should Be Worried about a Patent's Priority Date
This article was originally published in SRA
Executive Summary
Earlier this year, in the case of Edwards Lifesciences AG v Cook Biotech Inc, the High Court of England and Wales (Patents Court) handed down a unique and important decision that determines the priority date that should be given to a patent1. This resulted in a loss of priority and the introduction of new prior art that invalidated the patent in question. This article considers the commercial implications of the decision for pharmaceutical companies.