Sildenafil, Oslo District Court (Oslo tingrett), 3 August 2011

The Court held that Pfizer's Norwegian patent for use of sildenafil (a PDE 5 inhibitor) for treatment of erectile dysfunction was inventive. Although the court did not consider it inventive to test PDE V inhibitors for the treatment of erectile dysfunction as such, it   held that the skilled person in so testing was confronted with an extensive testing task. Hence, the court found that the skilled person would not arrive at the claimed solution with a reasonable expectation of success within the available time window, i.e. the time period from publication of the relevant prior art to the priority date of the patent without inventive activity.

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