On 25th and 26th October Montserrat Jané held on-line classes as part of the course organised by the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office (SPTO) and the Patent Centre of the University of Barcelona (UB). In this Chemistry and Pharmacy module she took on questions and explored general issues related to patents in this sector, especially those before the European Patent Office and in the E.U. and U.S.A.

Apart from her extensive experience in the field of patents, Montserrat has over 12 years of experience in R&D in a pharmaceutical company where she was head of department and responsible for patents, thus giving an insight into the chemical industry with practical pointers and a ‘hands on’ approach.

The imparted module covered issues such as the protection of inventions in chemistry and pharmacy and the drafting of the patent application, the evaluation of the risk of infringement, a brief introduction to patentability and infringement search tools in chemistry and pharmacy, extensions of patent protection, data exclusivity, and the experimental exception. Different practical examples were used to consolidate course content.