New book, with sample chapter on patent infringement

Note: this book notice substantially reproduces the content of a post earlier this morning on The SPC Blog here, since its subject matter is of interest to readers of PatLit too.  Apologies are offered to the small number of readers who are email subscribers to both weblogs.

Pharmaceutical, Biotechnology and Chemical Inventions: World Protection and Exploitation is the title of a blockbuster of a book, edited by Duncan Bucknell.  Divided into two volumes, this work covers a lot of ground that is of clear and immediate interest to readers of this weblog who hail from pharma companies, as well as the lawyers and patent attorneys who represent them.

According to the publisher, Oxford University Press, the work is "written by a handpicked team of expert practitioners" from each of the 12 jurisdictions which it spans. "Handpicked" makes it sound rather as though they grew on trees, which conjures up some delightful imagery.  You can check the identities of the authors here.  Anyway, as OUP says:

"This book highlights the special issues arising in obtaining, commercialising, enforcing or attacking intellectual property rights (including protection of regulatory data) in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and chemical industries across the world's key jurisdictions. It is unique in presenting topic matter horizontally by subject to facilitate comparison between country practices. 

The first two chapters give a general introduction to the differences between the jurisdictions and an overview of some of the key concepts in patent law. The remainder of the book is dedicated to a detailed analysis of the major legal issues arising in these areas of technology. 

Each component chapter has a comparative introduction, looking at the variances in the laws of different domains, followed by side-by-side analysis of the relevant regimes, including tables and flow-charts which summarise and explain the key legal concepts. The jurisdictions covered are the United States, Europe (UK, Germany, Netherlands, France and Italy), Japan, Canada, Australia, India and China".

As is only to be expected, the book deals extensively with patent litigation issues. In particular, readers are treated to the following:

Part G. Invalidity proceedings and strategy
1: Overview
2: Third part intervention during prosecution
3: Opposition proceedings
4: Re-examination
5: Revocation/nullification proceedings
6: Declarations of validity 

Part H. Infringement
1: Overview
2: Literal infringement
3: Infringement equivalents
4: Contributory infringement
5: Infringement proceedings & strategy
6: Remedies for patent infringements
7: Restrictions on remedies 

Part I. Defences to infringement
1: Overview
2: Prior secret use
3: Experimental use and clinical trials
4: The Bolar exemption
5: Contributory infringement
6: Parallel importing and exhaustion of rights 

Part J. Patent litigation strategies
1: Overview
2: Court hierarchies
3: Overview of litigation
4: Preliminary injunctions
5: Split trials
6: Summary judgments
7: Multi-jurisdictional strategy
8: Practicalities of litigation
9: Settlement of litigation

The publishers offer a sample chapter, this being the one on Infringing Acts and 'Literal Infringement', which you can peruse here at your leisure.

PatLit readers may be excited to discover that The SPC Blog is running a competition, for which the prize is a copy of this giant book.  The rules are as follows: your task is to state which country should be included in the second edition as the 13th jurisdiction, in addition to the 12 key jurisdictions analysed in this work, explaining in not more than 30 words why it should be included. Please email your answer to The SPC Blog here, with the subject line "Bucknell Book". Entries should be received by not later than midnight (BST) on Sunday 24 July. So far, some very curious suggestions have been received, a sign that the summer vacations are imminent ...

Bibliographical data.  Hardback, 2 volumes, 2,536 pages. ISBN 978-0-19-928901-1. Price £295.00. Book's web page here.