Court reports: Warner-Lambert v Sandoz

Since the early 1980s, the European Patent Office has granted second medical use patents for new uses of known pharmaceutical products. Second medical use patents can cover a new indication, a new dosage regimen, or a new method of treatment. For example, Asp irin, possibly the world’s most commonly used drug, was first discovered for its analgesic properties; only subsequently were its anticoagulant properties discovered. The interpretation of second medical use claims, and consequently the approach to infringement of these claims by courts, varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction and is a developing area of the law.