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Intellectual Property Law

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University of Washington School of Law

Journal

2020

Patents

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Distorted Drug Patents, Erika Lietzan, Kristina M.L. Acri Née Lybecker Oct 2020

Distorted Drug Patents, Erika Lietzan, Kristina M.L. Acri Née Lybecker

Washington Law Review

Drug patents are distorted. Unlike most other inventors, drug inventors must complete years of testing to the government’s specifications and seek government approval to commercialize their inventions. All the while, the patent term runs. When a drug inventor finally launches a medicine that embodies the invention, only a fraction of the patent life remains. And yet, conventional wisdom holds—and empirical studies show—that patent life is essential to innovation in the pharmaceutical industry, perhaps more so than any other inventive industry. Congress tried to address this in 1984, authorizing the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) to “restore” a portion of the …