Patents can be eHoyland @ Can't benitec upgrade/extend patent...

Patents can be eHoyland @ Can't benitec upgrade/extend patent after 2018. I don't know how it works.

Patents can be extended. I looked in to this a number of years ago and the criteria for the patent office to approve an extension  are quite complex. I think the party concerned cannot apply for an extension more than two years before the expiry date, so mid 2016 for us. I think one really needs to have some expertise in this area in order to be able to interpret the applicability of regulations and so if Benitec has had advice form its patent attorneys that the Graham patent cannot be extended, then we probably don't meet the criteria.

I also believe that if we commercial a biotech product using a patent that is about to expire, a further ten years is added to the life of the patent for its use in the production of that particular biotech product. So if the Graham patent is needed for TT-034 and TT-034 does not get commercialised until, say, 2017, then no one else can use the Graham patent to copy TT-034 without paying royalties to Benitec.

Any US patent attorneys out there?