The Federal Court of Appeal in Australia recently interpreted method of treatment claims as having an element of intention.

In this article we will be focussing on the construction and novelty of the relevant claim. The infringement aspect of the decision will be dealt with in a separate article.

The subject of these proceedings was Australian patent number 670491 to Sanofi-Aventis Deutschland GmbH. It contains a single claim to:

A method of preventing or treating a skin disorder, wherein the skin disorder is psoriasis, which comprises administering to a recipient an effective amount of a pharmaceutical composition containing as an active ingredient a compound of formula I or II…