Our ZBM team experts Montserrat Jané and Carlos Maíllo held on-line classes and fielded questions related to patents in their respective specialist fields of chemistry and pharmacy and biotechnology and biomedicine as part of the Institute of Continuing Education of the University of Barcelona (IL3-UB) patent course in November. The two modules dealt with specific questions of patents in these sectors, especially in the E.U. and the U.S.A.

The Chemistry and Pharmacy module was imparted by Montserrat Jané, a senior partner at ZBM, she has a Degree in Chemistry and is a European Patent Attorney and a European Patent Litigator at the UPC. With over 12 years of experience in R&D in a pharmaceutical company and being responsible for patents, Montserrat gives an insight into IP within the chemical industry with practical pointers and a ‘hands on’ approach. Covering a wide panorama of issues such as the protection of inventions in chemistry and pharmacy, 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.

Carlos Maíllo is a junior partner at ZBM, he has a PhD in Biomedicine and an MSc Biochemistry, is a European Patent Attorney and a European Patent Litigator at the UPC. With his wealth of knowledge he delivered the module of Biotechnology and Biomedicine and addressed specific questions regarding patents in this sector, such as the patentability of methods based on the use of biomarkers, patentability of inventions based on DNA and proteins, patentability of micro-organisms and antibodies, to name just a few. He also highlighted issues such as exceptions and exclusions in the EPO, patentable subject matter in the USPTO, particular aspects of patent applications for biotechnological inventions, sequence searches in free databases and general bases of patentability in the EPO and the USPTO.

Many thanks to all the participants for their interest and also thanks to IL3 for inviting ZBM to share their specialised knowledge and giving us the opportunity to be a part of this important initiative for yet another year.