The SPTO launches a new Technological Surveillance Bulletin and a new Technological Alert on "Coronavirus: diagnosis and therapy in humans"

It is well known the important challenge that all humanity is facing since the first case of COVID-19 was detected in China in December 2019, which has caused the largest known pandemic, challenging health systems from around the world for its rapid expansion.

The Spanish Patent and Trademark Office, O.A. (SPTO), in its effort to disseminate the technical information contained in the patents, has published a new Technological Surveillance Bulletin (BVT): "Coronavirus: diagnosis and therapy in humans".

Although the first patents related to the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus have not yet been published, since the 18 months that all national and international legislation collects must elapse from the time the patent application is made until its publication, the current knowledge about other beta-coronaviruses that have caused epidemics in the recent past (SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV) is serving as a starting point to undertake new research and development activities for the treatment of COVID-19. And that is why, in this zero number, all patents published from 2018 to March 2020 have been included, in addition to a statistical analysis on them in order to show the distribution of these patents by country of origin, year and applicant.

To facilitate reading, the recovered patents have been grouped into four sections: Antivirals and other agents to treat pathologies associated with viral disease, Vaccines, Diagnosis and Devices for the treatment or control of viral infection.

As of the number 1 that will be published in July, this Bulletin, like the rest of the Technological Surveillance Bulletins, will be updated quarterly.

Subscription to this new bulletin as well as to the rest of the 15 Technological Surveillance Bulletins made by the SPTO is free and can be done through the corresponding subscription form on the office's website.

In addition to the BVT dedicated to Coronavirus, a new Technology Alert has also been launched on the same subject, which provides daily updated information on the most recent patents being published in the world. With this last alert, there are already 32 Alerts available on the OEPM website in different technical sectors.

The BVT and the Technological Alerts complete the offer of free Technological Surveillance services carried out by patent examiners that have been offered since year 2000. In this way, the OEPM fulfills one of its missions, which is to disseminate technical information contained in patents, essential information for all kinds of scientific and technological organizations.

More information:

BVT “Coronavirus: diagnóstico y terapia en humanos”

Alerta tecnológica “Coronavirus: diagnóstico y terapia en humanos”