SOME ASPECTS OF INTELLECTUL PROPERTY RIGHTS IN MEDICINE IN THE CONTEXT OF EUROPEAN INTEGRATION PROCESSES

Abstract

The aim of the article is to analyze the objects of patent law in the field of medicine in the context of European integration processes. The field of medicine is quite speculative, it is about the life and health of people. As technology in the field of medicine improves, intellectual property rights become the privilege of medical companies, and technical organizations, etc. That is, we are talking about the fact that patents in our country are issued for everything. Today we seethat the policy of medical and pharmaceutical companies, according to the existing legal system in Ukraine, receives patents for inventions (utility models) and thus monopolizes the medical market, which in turn leads to a limitation of people to affordable drugs or available treatment services (patent for the method).The current state of the system of legal protection of inventions and utility models in Ukraine (patent system) is characterized by some problems. The legislation of Ukraine does not distinguish between objects covered by legal protection as inventions and utility models. In this regard, it is argued that securing the possibility of dual protection (patenting) of the same object as the invention or as a utility modelleads to a large number of patents that duplicate each other, has negative consequences for the realization of human rights in field of medicine.In this regard, we propose to bring the legislation of Ukraine into line with the European legislation by amending the Law of Ukraine «On Protection of Rights to Inventions and Utility Models» in Art. 6 «Legal Protection Conditions» are provisions that exclude medicinal products from among patentable utility models. At present, Ukrainian legislation allows the registration of a medicinal product on a utility model, which is inadmissible in the medical field. Such an opportunity creates favorable conditions for patent holders to monopolize the market and not to lower drug prices. Such legal protection of inventions is «evergreen patents» — patents whose holders artificially extendits exclusive rights to the active substance by providing protection to the additional properties of the active substance and methods of treatment. As for the industrial design, Article 5 of the Law of Ukraine «On Protection of Industrial Design Rights» provides legal protection for the industrial design, which does not contradict the public order, the principles of humanity and morality and meets the conditionsof patentability. An object of an industrial design may be the shape, drawing or coloring, or a combination thereof, which determine the appearance of the industrial product and are intended to meet aesthetic and ergonomic needs. We would like to draw attention to the fact that such industrial design patents as rubber stoppers are patent trolling and are an example of unfair use of intellectual property rights. Therefore, it is necessary to harmonize the patent legislation of Ukraine with the European Patent Convention.