Patent office governance in response to patent extension strategies

One important field in the literature on pharmaceutical patenting that is still underdeveloped is the analysis of the prosecution of patent applications by patent offices not from a technological perspective, but through the lens of public policy. The theoretical rationale of patenting is to generate direct reward to investment and knowledge disclosure, with the indirect goal of promoting innovation in the market. Nevertheless, the patent office is another important locus for this protection strategy. Given the policy goals of patenting, patent offices both set and operate the policy tools. Therefore, it is important to understand how the combination of structural and governance aspects of the offices and the applicants’ strategies may interfere in the examination and lead to extension of scope or duration of patents. Extending pharmaceutical patents has an effect not only in market competition, but in personal and public health budgets, keeping in mind that the final product of this industry is access to health. Therefore, this presentation will be dedicated to discussing and building a framework for analysing the governance of patent offices from a policy implementation perspective, focusing on pharmaceutical patenting on developing countries. Examples of this type of analysis will be drawn from an investigation of the prosecution of pharmaceutical patent applications at the Brazilian Patent Office (INPI), with the goal of stressing the administration of patent offices as an executive solution to patent extension, when most prescriptions tend to focus on legislative and judiciary actions.