Patent strategies for high-throughput screening systems: recent progress and future developments

High-throughput screening (HTS) systems for selection of drug candidates have been established in recent years. Patents and patent applications may cover different aspects of HTS, from assay structure to specific reagents used in HTS and, thus, protection of intellectual property rights within HTS may be obtained using different patent strategies. Broad functional claims are often listed in these patent applications. Users of HTS should be aware of these intellectual property rights before using HTS for selection of drug candidates.