Robert A. Armitage Senior Vice President and General Counsel Eli Lilly and Company

Bio Sketch

Robert A. Armitage became senior vice president and general counsel for Eli Lilly and Company in January 2003, and is a member of the company's executive and operations committees. He joined the company as vice president and general patent counsel in October 1999. Armitage is a member and a past president of the American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA) and the Association of Corporate Patent Counsel (ACPC). He is also a past chair of the Patent Committee of the Pharmaceutical Research. He currently serves as vice chair of the Intellectual Property Law Section of the American Bar Association.

Title

"Spelling out in plain English how the PCT might better serve owners of high-value, global inventions."

Abstract

Given that it is critical to optimize the patent system’s effectiveness as an IPR system, enhancements to the operation of the PCT should be directed towards improving the certainty, economy and promptness of its determinations. Because the PCT affords a better paradigm for patenting high-value, globally applicable inventions than other types of inventions, enhancing the PCT’s operation for these inventions will benefit all PCT users. Based on these predicates, the presentation proposes an alternative PCT pathway within the existing PCT treaty framework. It lays out in the plain English what this might mean and the universality of the expected benefits.