By the year 2015, many patents related to pharmaceutical products - that today annually yield over 140 billion dollars - will expire. Patent holders will lose the exclusivity on marketing rights and will face the entering into the market of generic manufactures. This is a new important chapter for the pharmaceutical world, which will probably lead to a "war" between generic manufactures and patent holders. This will lead to an increased interest of the law firms for the pharmaceutical field and to a change in the way of doing business, due both to the greater interest of the consumers for generic drugs' lower costs and to the cuts in health care budgets decided by the governments.