Patent law developments in the Philippines

In a case of first impression, the Philippine Supreme Court invoked public interest considerations as one of the grounds for denying a petition to revive an abandoned patent application. In the 2016 case of E I Dupont de Nemours and Co v Director General Emma C Francisco, the court denied DuPont’s petition to revive its patent application No. 35526 covering losartan, an angiotensin receptor blocker used in the treatment of hypertension. According to the court, public interest would be prejudiced if, despite DuPont’s inexcusable negligence, the petition were granted.

As a background, DuPont’s counsel sent a letter to the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) on 19 December 2000, requesting it to issue an office action on DuPont’s patent application, which was filed in 1987.

On 20 January 2002, the IPOPHL issued an office action, marked as paper No. 2, informing DuPont that on 19 July 1988, the first office action was mailed to DuPont’s former counsel. Because the former counsel failed to respond to the office action, the application was declared abandoned as of 20 September 1988.