The article illustrates that “any specific use in a medical method” as defined in Article 54(5) EPC 2000 seems to offer broad possibilities for defining a further medical use of a known substance. However, it should be borne in mind that such new further medical use must also be considered inventive in view of the prior art in order to constitute a patentable invention.
This article was first published in LSIPR Quarterly 2, February 2014.