Mukesh mohite

Another IPR topic!

Evergreening of patents refers to increasing the life of the patent or the patent term beyond 20 years to reap the benefits for much longer period of time. Drug patent ever greening is the single most important strategy that multinational pharmaceutical companies have been using since 1983 in the US (and since 1993 in Canada) to retain profits from “blockbuster” (high sales volume) drugs for as long as possible.
When the original patent over the active component of a brand name drug is about to expire, these drug companies often claim large numbers of complex and highly speculative patents. Laws in the US and Canada require manufacturers to notify the original brand name patent holders of their intention to market copies at the expiry of the original patent. The original patent holders can then threaten these potential generic competitors with breaching their now “evergreened” patents and seek a court order preventing their marketing approval.