Regardless of the outcome, the case raises an important legal question: how can a firm like Apotex bring a generic drug to market when others own a perfectly valid patent for it?

不管最后结果如何，该案例引发了一个重大的法律问题：象Apotex这样的仿制药品怎么会闯入别人拥有完全有效专利认可的药品市场呢？

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Also, patent, trademarks laws can often be used to bar unauthorized sales by foreign licensee, provided that the licenser has valid patent, trademark, or copyright protection.

同时，专利、商标、版权发也经常用于限制国外被许可人未经授权的销售，条件是许可人具有有效的专利、商标和受保护的版权。

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He filed for the patent in 1992 and it was granted in 1999, making it valid for at least another 15 years.

Abelow在1992年申请了专利，1999年被批准。该专利至少在未来15年都是合法的。

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But he notes that people are less likely to regard business methods as a valid subject of patent protection.

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Must be, otherwise no one could have a patent valid in 2012 for something that has been around since 1972.

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And if a patent is valid, the branded producer has a right to deny the generic drug maker access to the market until that patent expires.

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