Patentschutz für medizinische Verfahrenserfindungen im Europäischen Patentsystem und im US-Recht

Under European patent law, methods of medical treatment of the human body or animal body are excluded from patent protection. With the boundaries between medical science and medical technology becoming increasingly indistinct in modern medicine, the appropriate application and construction of the exemption provision turns out to be more difficult. Anne Sophie Wolfrum uses comparative law and economic analysis in order to review whether this provision can still be justified. She concludes that only physicians should be protected from liability for patent infringement, whereas industrial market actors should not be given this privilege. The author presents alternative solutions de lege lata and de lege ferenda.