Bernabé Zea participated in the 5th Edition of the Conference on patents in the pharmaceutical industry: protection of inventions and patent infringement, organised by the Asociación Española de Farmacéuticos de La Industria (AEFI) and held on-line on 13th and 14th September 2021.

The two-day course was designed for professionals such as project managers, members of R&D teams and business development and marketing departments, with the aim of providing expert practical knowledge of patents and regulatory exclusivity for all those working in the pharmaceutical industry. The course addressed current hot topics, such as the future unitary patent or the Unified Patent Court in Europe, and the controversial decisions of the American courts on what is patentable, which has changed the rules of the game for many companies in the sector. Other vital issues discussed included the duration of patents as well as strategic ways to extend them through regulatory exclusivities in Europe and the US, such as data exclusivity and orphan drug exclusivity.

With Bernabe’s extensive wealth of experience, his presentations centred around the present and future state of the patent system in Europe, the importance of patents in the pharmaceutical sector and associated rights when a patent is granted, patent litigation; how to enforce patent rights against third parties and how to prevent possible infringement.