By Richard Schurman
Dear IP Dragon readers,
A Team of law students, who are members of the Intellectual Property law Fellowship at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego, California, are working on a Research Project directed toward aiding patent attorneys in developing international patent filing strategies for biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. With the help of IP Dragon readers, the Team is working to amass statistically significant survey data on the countries patent attorneys are filing patents in for their biotechnology and pharmaceutical clients most often, and the factors considered when making the decisions to file.
As China institutes the universal healthcare program and modernizes its economy, the demand for biotech and pharmaceutical products will likely increase. With increased demand, the market competition and incentive for companies to patent their research and products will likely increase as well. Once the results of the survey are published, policy makers will have more information on the factors patent attorneys from different countries consider most important when making their filing decisions. The results will also give Chinese patent attorneys better information as to where in the world they can promote their legal services and partner with foreign law firms for patent applications being filed in China. Responses from Chinese patent attorneys will be particularly valuable to see where the growing life sciences sector in China intends export its new products.
The survey is open to patent attorneys from any country who prosecute patents in the biotechnology of pharmaceutical sectors. The survey can be found by following the hyperlink below. All personally identifiable information will be kept confidential. It should take approximately 15 minutes to complete. As a token of our gratitude for completing the survey, respondents have the voluntary option of entering in their email address to receive the survey results when they are released, and to be considered in a drawing for one of several gifts.
If you would like more information or have any questions about this project please visit: http://www.tjsl.edu/news-media/2013/10478 or email one of the team members directly at: schurmrh@tjsl.edu. The results of the survey will be released on April 11, 2014, in San Diego, at a public seminar event with panel discussions on the evolving field of international patent law.
Thank you for your time and thank you to IP Dragon for allowing this guest post.
Richard Schurman