Lawmakers Urge USTR to Ramp Up Attention on Canadian Patent Violations
U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Michael Froman should elevate Canada to the USTR Special 301 Priority Watch List this year, in response to Canada’s failure to bring its patent standards “in line” with international standards and regulations, said more than 30 lawmakers from the House of Representatives in a recent letter. Canadian courts have repeatedly violated global intellectual property agreements, including the primary World Trade Organization pact on intellectual property, by determining certain drug patents lack the “utility” necessary to be regulated, said the lawmakers.
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“This new and unique interpretation has so far resulted in 18 revoked patents for innovative medicines on the basis that they are not ‘useful.’ This has occurred after these drugs had been approved by the Canadian health regulatory agency as safe and effective and are in wide use by patients in Canada,” said the lawmakers in the April 10 letter. “No other country has denied or revoked patents on any of these 18 medicines on these grounds, and, perhaps most egregiously, we understand that the companies in Canada that have sought to have these patents revoked on the basis that they are not ‘useful’ are now marketing the very same supposedly not useful medicines to patients themselves.”
Email ITTNews@warren-news.com for a copy of the letter.