Section 54(5) of the European Patent Convention formerly precluded patent claims to a second medical purpose or use for compounds. However, the European Patent Office‘s enlarged board of appeals ruled in a decision (G5/83) ruled that a claim could be ‘directed towards use of a substance or composition for manufacture of a medicament for a specified new and innovative therapeutic application.’ Claims written in that form came to be known as Swiss Form Claims because they had previously been allowed and were common under Swiss Patent Law.
Swiss Form Claims have ceased to be filed, as no longer permitted or necessary under the 2000 revisions to the EPC which came into force in 2007, but existing patents containing Swiss Claims will still be extant until 2027.