Patent Law

Biotech/Pharma Docket

Posted on July 02, 2010
By James DeGiulio -- Midland Settles with Life Technologies in Fluorescence Probe Infringement Suit Midland Certified Reagent Co. Inc. has resolved an infringement suit brought by Applied Biosystems LLC and parent company Life Technologies Corp. over five patents covering a fluorescence probe used in biotechnology assays...

Rep. Kucinich Introduces Legislation Related to Genetically Engineered Organisms

Posted on July 01, 2010
By Donald Zuhn -- Last week, Representative Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) (at right) introduced three bills in the House related to the labeling of food containing genetically engineered material, the cultivation and handling of genetically engineered crops, and the establishment of a set of farmer rights regarding genetically engineered animals, plants, and seeds: ? The "Genetically Engineered Food Right to Know Act" (H...

Reaction to Bilski v. Kappos

Posted on June 30, 2010
By Donald Zuhn -- The Supreme Court waited until the eleventh hour to issue its long-awaited decision in Bilski v. Kappos, affirming the Federal Circuit's determination that an application directed to hedging risk in energy commodities was not patent eligible while determining that the Federal Circuit's machine-or-transformation test is not the sole test for assessing patent eligibility under 35 U...

USPTO Requests Comments Regarding Proposed Changes to Restriction Practice

Posted on June 30, 2010
By Sarah Fendrick -- The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office announced in a notice published in the Federal Register (75 Fed. Reg. 33584) that it is considering changes to restriction practice aimed at improving the quality and consistency of restriction requirements made by Office personnel...

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Bilski v. Kappos (2010)

Posted on June 29, 2010
By Kevin E. Noonan -- The Supreme Court decided Bilski v. Kappos today and, as anticipated, agreed with the Federal Circuit that Bilski's claims to methods for "hedging" risk in commodities trading are not patent-eligible subject matter. After that, the opinion elevates the analysis to nothing short of advanced tea-leaf reading (including ample evidence regarding the prejudices and opinions of the various members of the Court on the topic of patent-eligibility)...

Court Report

Posted on June 28, 2010
By Sherri Oslick -- About Court Report: Each week we will report briefly on recently filed biotech and pharma cases. AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LP et al. v. Glenmark Generics Inc. USA 1:10-cv-00543; filed June 21, 2010 in the District Court of Delaware ? Plaintiffs: AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LP; AstraZeneca UK Ltd...

Conference & CLE Calendar

Posted on June 28, 2010
June 28-30, 2010 - 3rd Annual Product and Pipeline Enhancement for Generics (marcus evans) - Washington, DC June 29, 2010 - Navigating the U.S. Biosimilar Pathway (American Bar Association) - 1:00 - 2:30 PM (EST) June 30, 2009 - Markman Hearings and Claim Construction in Patent Litigation 2010 (Practising Law Institute) - New York, NY (with groupcasts in Atlanta, GA; Mechanicsburg, PA; Philadelphia, PA; and Pittsburgh, PA) July 7, 2010 - Prior Art & Obviousness 2010: Current Trends in Sections 102 & 103 (Practising Law Institute) - New York, NY July 7-9, 2010 - Fundamentals of Patent Prosecution 2010: A...

FDA Boot Camp

Posted on June 26, 2010
American Conference Institute (ACI) will be holding the next session of its FDA Boot Camp conference on August 25-26, 2010 in San Francisco, CA. ACI faculty will help attendees: ? Master the complexities of pharmaceutical iP and the regulatory balance between brand name and generic products; ? Analyze the future of follow-on biologics following recent health care reform legislation; ? Recognize the pivotal role of labeling in the drug and biologics approval process; ? Comprehend the structure of the FDA and the roles of the three major agency centers: CDER, CBER, and CDHR; ? Understand the basics of the approval...

Inequitable Conduct Audioconference

Posted on June 26, 2010
Technology Transfer Tactics will be offering an audioconference entitled "Protect Your Patents from Inequitable Conduct Charges" on July 22, 2010 from 1:00 - 2:30 PM (EDT). Jack Cook of Quarles & Brady and Stephanie Whitehorse of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) will examine both pre-filing issues and post-filing procedures, and provide a detailed blueprint for adhering to ethical and equitable conduct rules...

ABA 2010 Annual Meeting

Posted on June 26, 2010
The American Bar Association (ABA) will be holding its 2010 Annual Meeting from August 5-10 in San Francisco, CA. During the Annual Meeting, various ABA sections and divisions will be offering more than 250 CLE programs, including the following programs that will be offered by the Intellectual Property Law section: ? IP Counsel ?Pow-Wow? ? What Keeps Them Up at Night? ? The Outcome of CIPRO and its Effect on Reverse Payments; ? Patentable Subject Matter after In re Bilski; and ? Identifying and Conveying the Evidence of Fraud in Patent Cases...

PLI Advanced Patent Prosecution Workshop

Posted on June 26, 2010
Practising Law Institute (PLI) will be holding a two-day seminar entitled: "Advanced Patent Prosecution Workshop 2010: Claim Drafting & Amendment Writing" on July 26-27, 2010 in New York, NY and on August 16-17, 2010 in San Francisco, CA. At the New York seminar, PLI's faculty will offer presentations on the following topics: ? Ethics in the PTO; ? Concurrent Sessions I: Advanced Specification Drafting Issues -- all concurrent sessions and workshops will provide lectures specific to four different technologies including biotechnology and chemical/pharmaceutical; ? Concurrent Sessions II: Advanced Claim Drafting Issues; ? Concurrent Workshops I: Advanced Claim Drafting; ? In...

Biotech/Pharma Docket

Posted on June 25, 2010
By James DeGiulio -- Graceway's Injunction and Nycomed's Dismissal Denied In Aldara Suit Graceway Pharmaceuticals' suit against Nycomed alleging infringement of a patent for skin lesion treatment Aldara continues to move forward, after a ruling denied both defendant Nycomed's motion for dismissal and plaintiff Graceway's motion for a preliminary injunction...

Mexican Congress Amends IP Law

Posted on June 25, 2010
By Juan Serrano -- On June 18, 2010, a decree was published in the Federal Official Gazette, reforming several provisions of the Mexican IP law related to patent practice. The main amendments are the following: a) The industrial application requirement for patentability was modified to include a need to demonstrate the possibility of "practical utility" of the invention, and to fully support such utility in the written description...

An Uneven Debate on "Takings" in Pharmaceutical Patent Law

Posted on June 24, 2010
By Kevin E. Noonan -- Our opinions are always (perhaps inevitably) informed by our experience. And when our experience is limited, particularly when those limitations are coupled with passion, those limitations equally inform our opinions. These realities come to mind when reviewing a letter from two medical students in the journal Science in response to an article by Sherry Knowles regarding patent law and the pharmaceutical industry...

Wyeth Holdings Corp. v. Sebelius (Fed. Cir. 2010)

Posted on June 23, 2010
By Andrew Williams -- Last month, in addition to Photocure ASA v. Kappos and Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical, Inc. v. Lupin Pharmaceuticals, Inc., the Federal Circuit completed the hat trick of patent term extension cases with Wyeth Holdings Corp. v. Sebelius...

PCT Member States Endorse Recommendations to Enhance International Patent System

Posted on June 22, 2010
By Donald Zuhn -- On Friday, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) announced that the member states of WIPO's Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) had endorsed a series of recommendations for enhancing the international patent system. The announcement came at the conclusion of PCT Working Group discussions that took place from June 14-18, 2010...

USPTO Signs Memorandums of Understanding with Rospatent and SIPO

Posted on June 21, 2010
By Sarah Fendrick -- On June 2, 2010, Sharon Barner, Deputy Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and Boris Simonov, Director of the Russian Federal Service for Intellectual Property, Patents and Trademark (Rospatent), signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on comprehensive bilateral cooperation between the two Offices...

Court Report

Posted on June 21, 2010
By Sherri Oslick -- About Court Report: Each week we will report briefly on recently filed biotech and pharma cases. Pfizer Inc. et al. v. Mylan Inc. et al. 1:10-cv-00528; filed June 16, 2010 in the District Court of Delaware ? Plaintiffs: Pfizer Inc...

Conference & CLE Calendar

Posted on June 21, 2010
June 21-22, 2010 - Follow-on Biologics (American Conference Institute) - New York, NY June 20-22, 2010 - IP Business Congress (Intellectual Asset Management (IAM) magazine) - Munich, Germany June 23, 2010 - Regulatory and Intellectual Property Opportunities and Challenges for Life Science Companies Entering the U...

CLE on AMP v. USPTO

Posted on June 19, 2010
Law Seminars International (LSI) will be offering a one-hour telebriefing entitled: "Molecular Pathology v. U.S. PTO on Gene Patents" on June 24, 2010 from 1:00-2:00 PM (EDT). Elizabeth Howard of Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP will moderate a panel including Sandra Wells, VP and Chief IP Counsel at Affymetrix, and Hans Sauer, Deputy General Counsel for Intellectual Property for the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO)...

Generic Pharmaceuticals Conference

Posted on June 19, 2010
Marcus evans will be holding its 3rd Annual Product and Pipeline Enhancement for Generics conference on "Navigating Regulatory Pathways and Patent Strategies to Ensure Market Sustainability" on June 28-30, 2010 in Washington, DC. The conference will enable attendees to: ? Achieve effective patent strategies and gain knowledge on the most recent cases regarding Hatch-Waxman litigation; ? Hear the latest regulations from the U...

BIO Celebrates Anniversary of Chakrabarty Decision

Posted on June 18, 2010
By Donald Zuhn -- In a press release issued on Wednesday, the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) recalled the Supreme Court's landmark decision in Diamond v. Chakrabarty, which was issued thirty years ago on June 16, 1980. In Chakrabarty, the Court determined (by a 5-4 vote) that a genetically engineered Pseudomonas bacterium capable of breaking down multiple components of crude oil "plainly qualifies" as patentable subject matter under 35 U...

Biotech/Pharma Docket

Posted on June 18, 2010
By James DeGiulio -- Medicis' Solodyn Patent Upheld on Reexamination The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued a reexamination certificate reaffirming Medicis' U.S. Patent No. 5,908,838 covering the skin treatment Solodyn. The '838 patent, which issued in June 1999 and has been asserted in several infringement suits, covers a slow-dissolving form of tetracycline, a class of oral antibiotics that are commonly used to treat acne...

Photocure ASA v. Kappos (Fed. Cir. 2010)

Posted on June 16, 2010
By Andrew Williams -- Last month, in Photocure ASA v. Kappos, the Federal Circuit affirmed the decision by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia that methyl aminolevulinate hydrochloride ("MAL hydrochloride"), brand name Metvixia®, is entitled to patent term extension pursuant to 35 U...

Myriad Appeals AMP v. USPTO Decision

Posted on June 16, 2010
By Kevin E. Noonan -- Myriad Genetics, for itself as well as the named defendant Directors of the University of Utah Research Foundation, filed a Notice of Appeal today in Association for Molecular Pathology v. U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. As a consequence, the decision by Judge Robert Sweet holding that patents to human genes were not statutory subject matter as being the "physical embodiment of genetic information" will be reviewed by the Federal Circuit, and perhaps ultimately, the U...

USPTO Publishes Notice Regarding Enhanced Examination Timing Control Initiative

Posted on June 15, 2010
By Donald Zuhn -- In a press conference held earlier this month, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director David Kappos presented a proposal for a new patent examination initiative -- the "Three-Track" program -- for which the Office has begun seeking comment (see "USPTO Director Announces New Examination Options")...

Not Quite Artificial Life, But We're Getting Closer: Reactions to Venter's Synthetic Cell

Posted on June 14, 2010
By James DeGiulio -- Recently, we reported that a research team led by Dr. Craig Venter had developed a "synthetic cell" controlled by purely synthetic DNA (see "Dr. Craig Venter Creates First Cell Controlled Entirely by Synthetic DNA"). To evaluate the significance of the discovery, the journal Nature asked eight synthetic-biology experts about the implications for science and society of the "synthetic cell" made by the Dr...

Court Report

Posted on June 14, 2010
By Sherri Oslick -- About Court Report: Each week we will report briefly on recently filed biotech and pharma cases. Allergan Inc. et al. v. Paddock Laboratories Inc. 1:10-cv-00501; filed June 9, 2010 in the District Court of Delaware ? Plaintiffs: Allergan Inc...

Conference & CLE Calendar

Posted on June 14, 2010
June 15, 2010 - Patent Reform 2010: What Shape Will It Finally Take? (Analysis Group, Georgetown University's Center for Business and Public Policy, and McKool Smith) - Washington, DC June 16-18, 2010 - Fundamentals of Patent Prosecution 2010: A Boot Camp for Claim Drafting & Amendment Writing (Practising Law Institute) - New York, NY June 21-22, 2010 - Follow-on Biologics (American Conference Institute) - New York, NY June 20-22, 2010 - IP Business Congress (Intellectual Asset Management (IAM) magazine) - Munich, Germany June 23, 2010 - Regulatory and Intellectual Property Opportunities and Challenges for Life Science Companies Entering the U...

Re-examination Ordered on "Expired" Harvard Oncomouse Patent

Posted on June 11, 2010
By Kevin E. Noonan -- On Monday, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office granted an ex parte reexamination request for U.S. Patent No. 5,925,803, the latest-filed and last-granted member of the Harvard Oncomouse patent family. Remarkable about the petition is that the third party requester (TPR), Ellen Gonzales of Gonzales Patent Services, contends that the '803 patent has expired by operation of a terminal disclaimer filed in an earlier-filed application, but maintains that despite the putative expiration, the Office retains jurisdiction to consider the re-examination request...

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