European Union
United Arab Emirates
Patents (including Plant Variety Protection)
39. Please explain which mechanism does your legal framework envisions to ensure that only legitimate patent owners are allowed to manufacture or to authorise to manufacture pharmaceutical products. Please explain how any such mechanism applies and has applied in the transitional periods following amendments to the applicable laws, if any.
Article 15 of the Patent Law provides for preventive measures against illegal acts performed by third parties as explained above. However, Article 6 excludes chemical inventions related to pharmaceuticals, unless such products are made by means of special chemical processes, in which case protection is extend only to the processes and not to products of the processes. The amendment foreseen to Article 6 above, however, will delete the exclusion and bring the pharmaceutical processes and products under the protection of the law. The new articles will state that pharmaceutical products shall be subject to protection as of 1 January 2005. In the transitional period, the Administration is continuing to receive the patent applications in this field, which should be recorded in the patent Register. Furthermore, the amendment states that if the letters patent is issued in one of the Member states of the WTO for protecting patents related to such applications and if the holder is licensed to market his invention, then the applicant shall have the right of a exclusive marketing for such inventions, as of the date of licensing from competent parties in the UAE, in pursuance of the TRIPS Agreement provisions.