Judicially Developed Patent Law and Expropriation Under Investor-State Dispute Settlement

[Tsai-fang Chen] Abstract: Eli Lilly v. Canada is the first international investment arbitration case that renders final award that deals with patents under the international investment regime. This case is, therefore, critical in understanding the development of protecting patents under investment protection and its impact on the domestic patent regimes. Patents can be object of direct expropriation or that of indirect expropriation. As demonstrated in Eli Lilly v. Canada, a new frontier in claiming expropriation of patents is the invalidation of the patent by courts.