The cannabis patent dispute has now escalated. The Thai government has issued a decree ordering the Thai DIP to invalidate all cannabis related patents. The military government is allowed to do this under the its special powers. Thailand legalised medical marijuana and kratom applications last year.
The background is
here but in essence an access to medicines lobby type
panic has arisen because several pharma companies applied to patent
cannabis related inventions. Unfortunately wild misinterpretation
of patent rules has led to speculation that usual ogre, MNC big
pharma is trying to block local research and prevent Thai medicinal
products based on cannabis reaching patients. No one appears to
have checked whether the patents are valid or not, instead simply
asserting that they must be for natural processes. Nor did the
government wait for the DIP's usual patent examination.
A frenzy of misreporting and misunderstanding seems to be part of
the problem. The 10 or so patents in question ought to be rejected
anyway if they don't comply with Thai law, that is they are not
novel uses. But it takes time to examine a patent and the
government seems to have accelerated their decision in the face of
a media frenzy. The media does not report if the patents are for
valid inventions or not?
Now the worry is a worse situation will be created by the possible
automatic invalidation of possibly good patents, in breach of WTO
rules. Whether appeals will be filed is the next step to watch.
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