Patent Law

Reaction to House Patent Reform Bill

Posted on April 01, 2011
By Donald Zuhn -- On Wednesday, the House introduced its own version of the "America Invents Act" (H.R. 1249). Although the legislation introduced in the House and the bill that was passed in the Senate earlier this month (S. 23) share the same name, the two bills are not identical (a discussion of the differences between the House and Senate bills can be found here)...

House Introduces Its Version of "America Invents Act"

Posted on March 31, 2011
By Kevin E. Noonan -- Today, the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee in the House of Representatives, Lamar Smith (R-TX) (at right), introduced a version of the America Invents Act (passed by the Senate as S. 23). While identical in most respects, the bill has come provisions that differ from the Senate bill...

Patent Reform Discussion Moves to House

Posted on March 30, 2011
By Donald Zuhn -- On Wednesday afternoon, the House Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, Competition and the Internet will hold a hearing on the House version of Senate bill S. 23, otherwise known as the "America Invents Act." The hearing on the as yet unnumbered House bill, which begins at 1:30 pm (ET), will consist of two panels of witnesses, with U...

CLE on Centocor v. Abbott

Posted on March 30, 2011
Law Seminars International (LSI) will be offering a one-hour telebriefing on the Federal Circuit's recent decision in Centocor Ortho Biotech, Inc. v. Abbott Laboratories on March 31, 2011 from 3:00-4:00 PM (ET). Patent Docs author Dr. Donald Zuhn of McDonnell Boehnen Hulbert & Berghoff LLP will moderate panel including Courtenay Brinckerhoff of Foley & Lardner LLP and Dr...

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Duramed Pharmaceuticals, Inc. v. Watson Laboratories, Inc. (Fed. Cir. 2011)

Posted on March 29, 2011
By Donald Zuhn -- On Friday, in Duramed Pharmaceuticals, Inc. v. Watson Laboratories, Inc., the Federal Circuit reversed a decision by the District Court for the District of Nevada on summary judgment that the asserted claims of U.S. Patent No. 7,320,969 were nonobvious, determining that the District Court erred in its obviousness analysis...

Court Report

Posted on March 28, 2011
By Sherri Oslick -- About Court Report: Each week we will report briefly on recently filed biotech and pharma cases. Purdue Pharma L.P. et al. v. Watson Laboratories, Inc. ? Florida 0:11-cv-60643; filed March 24, 2011 in the Southern District of Florida ? Plaintiffs: Purdue Pharma L...

Conference & CLE Calendar

Posted on March 28, 2011
April 5-6, 2011 - International Patent Forum 2011 (Managing Intellectual Property) - London, UK April 6-9, 2011 - 26th Annual Intellectual Property Law Conference (American Bar Association Section of Intellectual Property Law) - Arlington, VA April 13-15, 2011 - Intellectual Property Counsels Committee (IPCC) Spring Conference & Meeting (Biotechnology Industry Organization) - Seattle, WA April 15, 2011 - 2nd Annual John Marshall Law School Review of Intellectual Property Law Symposium - Chicago, IL April 27, 2011 - 27th Annual Joint Patent Practice Seminar (Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, and Philadelphia Intellectual Property Law Associations) - New York, NY May 3-4,...

Supreme Court Increases Disclosure Burdens on Pharma Companies

Posted on March 25, 2011
By Kevin E. Noonan -- As it has done in other areas of the law recently (such as Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly), the Supreme Court on Tuesday addressed the requirements for pleadings sufficient to survive a motion to dismiss a complaint for securities law violations, in Matrixx Initiatives Inc...

Biotech/Pharma Docket

Posted on March 25, 2011
By James DeGiulio -- Apotex's Generic Provigil Found Not to Infringe Cephalon Patent Apotex received a favorable ruling on summary judgment in its dispute with Cephalon regarding the narcolepsy drug Provigil after the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania determined that Apotex's proposed generic does not infringe one of two Cephalon patents at issue in the case...

The Disappearance of Deceptive Intent in S. 23

Posted on March 24, 2011
By Kevin E. Noonan -- Nestled unobtrusively in a section of S. 23 called "Technical Amendments," S. 23 (the "America Invents Act") has done something that neither Congress nor any court has been able to do for 80 years: remove (or at least blunt) the duty of candor owed by an applicant to the U...

"Reform" at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

Posted on March 23, 2011
By Kevin E. Noonan -- Senate bill S. 23 (the "America Invents Act") contains several provisions changing the statutory authority of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (falling short, fortunately, of giving the Office substantive rule-making authority)...

Biotech Industry Losing Interest in the Therapeutic Potential of RNAi

Posted on March 22, 2011
By James DeGiulio -- When Andrew Fire and Craig Mello (at right) unraveled the mechanism of RNA interference (RNAi) and were awarded the Nobel Prize in 2006 for their efforts, RNAi was predicted to become the next great source of new therapeutics. Pharmaceutical companies moved quickly to devote research funding and personnel to developing what appeared to be a novel way to target nearly any protein involved in nearly any disease...

Few "Reform" Provisions Remain in S. 23 Relating to the Judiciary

Posted on March 22, 2011
By Kevin E. Noonan -- Seante bill S. 23 (the "America Invents Act"), as passed on March 13, 2011, contains few provisions related to aspects of patent law administered by the judiciary. This is ironic, in view of the extent to which calls for reform of damages, venue, willfulness, and other issues provided a major impetus to the persistent calls for reform that originally motivated such legislation (see, e...

USPTO Offers Relief to Japanese Applicants

Posted on March 21, 2011
By Donald Zuhn -- Last week, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office announced that it would be offering relief to persons affected by the 8.9-magnitude earthquake that struck about 250 miles northeast of Tokyo on March 11 and the resulting tsunami. In particular, the Office stated that it would withdraw and reissue any outstanding Office notice in a patent application or reexamination proceeding having one or more inventors, an assignee, or a correspondence address in areas of Japan affected by the earthquake and tsunami...

Court Report

Posted on March 21, 2011
By Sherri Oslick -- About Court Report: Each week we will report briefly on recently filed biotech and pharma cases. Glycobiosciences, Inc. v. Nycomed US, Inc. et al. 2:11-cv-01280; filed March 17, 2011 in the Eastern District of New York ? Plaintiff: Glycobiosciences, Inc...

Conference & CLE Calendar

Posted on March 21, 2011
March 23, 2011 - Antibody Patents after Centocor (Intellectual Property Owners Association) - 2:00 PM (ET) April 5-6, 2011 - International Patent Forum 2011 (Managing Intellectual Property) - London, UK April 6-9, 2011 - 26th Annual Intellectual Property Law Conference (American Bar Association Section of Intellectual Property Law) - Arlington, VA April 13-15, 2011 - Intellectual Property Counsels Committee (IPCC) Spring Conference & Meeting (Biotechnology Industry Organization) - Seattle, WA April 15, 2011 - 2nd Annual John Marshall Law School Review of Intellectual Property Law Symposium - Chicago, IL April 27, 2011 - 27th Annual Joint Patent Practice Seminar (Connecticut,...

BIO IPCC Spring Conference

Posted on March 19, 2011
The Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) will be holding its Intellectual Property Counsels Committee (IPCC) Spring Conference & Meeting on April 13-15, 2011 in Seattle, WA. The semi-annual IPCC conference will once again be open to the public...

CLE on Centocor v. Abbott

Posted on March 19, 2011
The Intellectual Property Owners Association (IPO) will offer a one-hour webinar entitled "Antibody Patents after Centocor" on Wednesday, March 23, 2011 beginning at 2:00 PM (ET). The IPO webinar will examine how much descrioption is enough when it comes to written description for antibody patents as well as discuss the obviousness challenges antibody patents face since KSR...

Additional Opportunities for Pre- and Post-grant Review, and Brand New Patent Trial and Appeal Board in S. 23

Posted on March 18, 2011
By Kevin E. Noonan -- S. 23 (the "America Invents Act" or, colloquially the patent reform bill) contains additional provisions for the U.S. Patent Office to obtain information related to patentability, both pre- and post-grant, as well as establishing a replacement for the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences called the Patent Trial and Appeal Board...

Post-grant Review Provisions of S. 23

Posted on March 17, 2011
By Kevin E. Noonan -- The "America Invents Act" (S. 23 or the patent reform bill) passed by the Senate contains revisions to current inter partes reexamination as well as provisions for an entirely new post-grant review proceeding. Section 5(a) sets forth the revisions to inter partes reexamination...

Inovia Releases Report on Global Patent Trends

Posted on March 17, 2011
By Donald Zuhn -- In February, inovia released its 2011 report on global IP trends. In compiling the report, inovia, which produces products for PCT national phase entry, European patent validation, and patent translations, surveyed nearly 150 U.S. companies to examine how the U...

Inventor's Interests, If Not Rights, Limited by S. 23

Posted on March 16, 2011
By Kevin E. Noonan -- The "America Invents Act" (S. 23; aka the patent reform bill) makes significant changes in the power of an assignee, or someone who has obligated an inventor to assign, to file an application without obtaining an oath or declaration (or even permission or knowledge) of the inventor, raising an interesting Constitutional question as discussed below...

Biotech/Pharma Docket

Posted on March 16, 2011
By James DeGiulio -- Watson Invalidates Cephalon's Fentora Patents Watson Pharmaceuticals won a substantial victory in its lawsuit with Cephalon over Fentora when the generic drugmaker successfully established that two of three asserted patents covering the drug are invalid...

What Are the Provisions of the Proposed "First-Inventor-to-File" System in S. 23?

Posted on March 15, 2011
By Kevin E. Noonan -- The Senate passed S. 23 last week, which will make several significant changes in U.S. patent law if its provisions survive deliberations in the House (which is preparing its own bill). One of the most fundamental of these is the change from the current "first-to-invent" to a "first-inventor-to-file" system...

Court Report

Posted on March 14, 2011
By Sherri Oslick -- About Court Report: Each week we will report briefly on recently filed biotech and pharma cases. Braintree Laboratories, Inc. v. Novel Laboratories, Inc. 3:11-cv-01341; filed March 9, 2011 in the District Court of New Jersey Infringement of U...

Conference & CLE Calendar

Posted on March 14, 2011
March 16-17, 2011 - FDA Boot Camp*** (American Conference Institute) - New York, NY March 18, 2011 - Intellectual Property Panel Symposium (George Washington University Law School) - San Francisco, CA April 5-6, 2011 - International Patent Forum 2011 (Managing Intellectual Property) - London, UK April 6-9, 2011 - 26th Annual Intellectual Property Law Conference (American Bar Association Section of Intellectual Property Law) - Arlington, VA April 15, 2011 - 2nd Annual John Marshall Law School Review of Intellectual Property Law Symposium - Chicago, IL April 27, 2011 - 27th Annual Joint Patent Practice Seminar (Connecticut, New Jersey, New York,...

Fabry Patients Sue Genyzme for Damages Caused By Fabrazyme Rationing

Posted on March 11, 2011
By James DeGiulio -- Since 2009, we have been tracking the story surrounding Genzyme's enzyme replacement drug Fabrazyme, which started with a problem at Genzyme's manufacturing facilities and led to nationwide shortages of the drug. These shortages prompted Fabry patients to petition the Department of Health and Human Services to exercise march-in rights under the Bayh-Dole Act, which in December 2010 was denied (see "HHS Denies Request to Exercise Bayh-Dole 'March-in' Rights for Fabrazyme")...

Obama Administration Supports S. 23

Posted on March 10, 2011
By Donald Zuhn -- On Tuesday, the Senate passed the America Invents Act (S. 23) by a 95-5 vote (see "Senate Passes S. 23"). While the provisions that made it into the bill were not entirely clear yesterday, a version of the legislation as passed was posted on the THOMAS website today...

Reaction to Senate Passage of S. 23

Posted on March 09, 2011
By Donald Zuhn -- It took almost six years for Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) to get a patent reform bill to the floor of the Senate for a vote. And after the Senate passed the most recent version of Senator Leahy's bill (S. 23) by a 95-5 vote earlier today (see "Senate Passes S...

Senate Passes S. 23

Posted on March 09, 2011
By Kevin E. Noonan -- The Senate voted today in favor of S. 23, the "American Invents Act," aka the Patent Reform Act of 2011. The vote was 95-5, with Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Mike Crapo (R-ID), John Ensign (R-NV), and James Risch (R-ID) voting against...

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