Conducting A Drug Patent FTO Search

From development to the entry of a drug in the market, there are various stages in the way. A well-defined stray is required to see how the product in demand will work in the coming days plus it helps in minimizing risks. Now, in the pharmaceutical industry, whenever you try to market your drug, other companies will work to point the technologies you have used which they have already patented. According to a patent attorney in India sometimes the patent can be blocked after such objections. 

Permission from the owner is required before bringing the product into the market. To avoid such situations, it is necessary for the companies to conduct freedom to operate searches. An FTO search is done to ensure that the patents, copyrights, and trademarks of others are not used without permission. According to it, the commercialization of your drug should not affect the rights of other people's intellectual property.

The motive behind conducting FTO search 

An FTO search can be performed for various reasons. Here are some of the essential benefits of performing freedom to operate searches. 

➥If technology is already patented, patent infringement might occur which will bring problems. 

➥The search is done to check if the technology used by you in the product you are going to commercialize. If some other company has already patented any technology, they can block the path of the patent. 

➥Some patents that come forward during the process might seem unnecessary from the commercialization point of view, but the technology needs to work without violating those. This prevents the infringement of patents.

The best time to conduct FTO search

 A number of factors need to be considered to decide the right time to perform such searches. Let's understand it by examining the stages of commercialization of technology. If we look at the very first stage or the early stages where the technology is in a premature form, and the future couldn't be decided, we see that FTO search done at that time will become useless in future. There is no use of such searches at an early stage because the risks will not be adequately evaluated and the search would not be applicable in the future. The reason for this is because the requirement of the product in the market and this will lead to more significant differences.

However, if you are thinking to perform an FTO search when the project is on its final stage that is also not a good idea, it will be tough for you to make changes in the product when it is in the matured stage. The best time to conduct such services is the average time when it is not too early and not too late.

Getting over the basic challenges

If more than one company is restricting the FTO search of your firm, you need to spend some time analyzing whether you actually want to move forward or not. If yes, then how? If the abandoning patent is valid, here are some of the things you can do to move forward 

1. Buy or license a patent

Sometimes the patent holder may not have proper manufacturing facility or the available facilities may not be sufficient or he wishes to concentrate on some specific market. In these cases, the patent holder can sell the invention.

2. Cross-licensing 

It works on mutual sharing. Two companies mutually share the licenses they own. There can be more than two companies too, and the process involves exchanging licenses to use each other's patent.

3. Patent pools

Here two companies can use the same license without bearing any extra expenses linked to R&D. The patent is placed in a “pool,” and the patent rights are cleared. 

4. Inventing around

This includes making some arrangements in the product when any company restricts the FTO search. 

Conclusion

FTO searches are of great benefit when done in the right way. Use of perfect strategy, correct information, and references can make the FTO search productive and helpful for you. It helps in reducing risks by opting out any of the methods mentioned above. 

Pharmaceutical Technologies And Future Of Intellectual Property

The difference in the patent protection process of the pharma sector and other industries

Patent protection or patent registration process includes making the concept legally yours. Once you register it on your name, no one else can use the idea without your permission. According to a patent attorney in India the patent protection of pharma companies is different from others in a lot number of ways. 

The pharma industry is all about developing new medical treatments. When research is done, and the concept is there in the complete form, it takes at least 10-15 years to the medicine to come in the market. Moreover, not only it takes such a long time, but the cost is also very high. Development of single medical treatment can cost billion dollars which is not affordable for everyone.

After the development of product also, there are challenges in the protection of the intellectual property. From involving individual IP policies to management styles and strategies, the importance of patent registration becomes apparent to every IP owner. By registering a patent, the owners can prevent their Intellectual property from getting copied by people who produce the medicines at low cost and in bulk. 

Challenges only in front of pharma IP and how to deal with them

While the manufacturing of a drug is quite affordable, the development of medical treatment is higher, and this is where the unique challenges in front of Pharma intellectual property start. Most of the pharma companies begin the registration process even before the clinical trials. 

The registration of patent during the research time reduces the patent life. The effective license life thus remains just 11.5 years on an average. However, the patent owner can apply to extend the patent life, but the extension time can’t bring whole of the life lost. 

The reduced life of the patent also reduces the marketing time for the new medicine because the ideas of new medical treatment need to be protected as quickly as possible. 

Moreover, natural products have been prevented from patenting by patent and trademark office by stating laws of nature. Also, the protection confirmation time can even vary. 

Changes with the emergence of biotechnology

The development of biotechnology is playing a significant role in transforming the healthcare industry. The collaboration of traditional bioscience processes and latest technologies has driven the development of treatments. Several available medical devices can examine the diseases in the human body, and more machines are yet to develop for the diagnosis of diseases. The innovation of technology is making the medical treatment easy and effective. The tools that can see the progression of the individual patient which is different in every case and this what makes the treatment effective. The wearable devices come in the form of a bracelet and many other styles to check deterioration and confirm procedure. 

Effect of 3D printing on the pharmaceutical industry

We expect technology to improve processes and reduce costs. The 3D printing allows the printing of pills, tissues, and organs. The method makes it possible for companies to lower the price of testing of drugs without forgetting the laws of safety and ethics. The commercialization of medical development has become comfortable with 3D printing processes. The best example is in dental implant fields where thousands of braces are manufactured with the help of printed images. Companies are working on the construction of 3D tissues that could replace tissues damaged due to diseases. The reports on the technology tell us that billion dollars cost could be reduced in coming years by using this technology.

What can we see in future for pharmaceutical IP

The two biggest challenges which pharma companies are facing from years include dealing with copycats and reduced patent life. Both motivation and investment have been impacted by the above two problems and is further affecting the innovation. 

Moreover, the latest technologies, as we can have seen in the article has made innovation possible. The emergence of supportive technologies has enhanced innovation, and that's why the diseases would be easily treated in the future. Cost is also going down, and that’s why companies are happily going for better research to develop better. The future of the pharma Intellectual property seems to be far better than now.