Replies to post #426838 on NorthWest Biotherapeutics Inc (NWBO)

[CrashOverride]

Thank you Onion!

[The oNiOnHEAd]

To clear up something I posted, earlier:

"When the original patent expires, only the holder of the improved patent will have a right to the improved version."

This wasn't meant to imply that the basic patent holder ever had any right to the improved version, or the improved patent holder ever had any right to the basic patent - they don't, unless by agreement or assignment. When the patent expires, the basic holder loses all protection, while the improved holder has protection only for the improved version, in this case, as is often the case with therapeutics, a treatment administered along with a co-treatment. To be clear, after the basic patent expires, anyone has a legal right to use it.

Back in the late 90s, the US patent system was reformed to be more in line with the rest of the world's patent rules. As part of this change, the original filing date was to become the start date of the patent coverage, instead of the granting date. Also, the patent would be visible to the public, as soon as it was filed. One of the concerns was that doing so would have the effect of allowing competitors, esp. foreign competitors, to start working on improvements, possibly long before the original patent was ever granted, thereby leapfrogging improvements over the original patent.

One of the solutions was to add a new type of patent, the "Provisional" patent, which allowed one year grace period from filing date during which the patent would not to be disclosed to the public. If this form of patent was not converted to the standard "Utility" patent, the filed provisional patent would expire and never be disclosed.

Making changes to the USPTO system was reportedly also to put a stop to the endless length of patent extensions created by patent attorneys delaying the approval process through administrative procedures, but I'm not sure how much the changes really helped.

Filing a utility patent or provisional patent with wide claims protection sufficient to prevent circumvention by competitors is not trivial. It requires careful search for prior art, well crafted claims, extreme attention to details, a clear explanation regarding novelty of the invention(s), good examples of alternate implementations, and a good understanding of the USPTO patent terms and rules. However, once granted, the wide coverage gives the holder protection from infringement that can be enforced in a court of law. You can be sure that the effort to produce NWBO's patents encompassed all of these things.