Karoline Coelho

In a recent publication titled “’Google for DNA’ indexes 10% of world’s known genetic sequences,” the journal, Science, addressed promising results of a new tool called MetaGraph. Developed by a Biomedical Informatics academic group from ETH Zurich, MetaGraph organizes and compresses publicly available sequence data into a searchable format.

There is no doubt that it is a challenge to design a patent protection strategy for a new medical use (for example, a new disease to be treated or prevented by a known composition, active ingredient or biological). The proper format for claiming such subject matter may vary significantly between patent jurisdictions. In Brazil, besides the accepted format, there are other points that deserve attention in terms of increasing the chances of success in obtaining a patent, such as the need to present experimental data in medical use patent applications in order to meet the sufficiency of disclosure requirements.