Patent Law

Conference & CLE Calendar

Posted on August 03, 2009
August 4, 2009 - Venue in Patent Litigation: New Strategies after Genetech and TS Tech USA (Strafford) - 1:00-2:30 PM (EST) August 17-18, 2009 - Advanced Patent Prosecution Workshop 2009: Claim Drafting & Amendment Writing (Practising Law Institute) - San Francisco, CA September 1, 2009 - Prior Art & Obviousness 2009: The PTO & CAFC Perspective on Patent Law Sections 102 & 103 (Practising Law Institute) - San Francisco, CA September 13-15, 2009 - 2009 Annual Meeting (Intellectual Property Owners Association) - Chicago, IL September 14-15, 2009 - 3rd Summit on Biosimilars and Follow-on Biologics*** (Center for Business Intelligence) -...

House Committee Approves Health Care Reform Bill Calling for 12-Year Exclusivity Period

Posted on August 01, 2009
By Donald Zuhn -- On Friday, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce approved a health care reform bill by a narrow three-vote margin (31-28). The bill (H.R. 3200), entitled "America's Affordable Health Choices Act," was originally introduced in the House on July 14, 2009 by Rep...

ACI Maximizing Pharmaceutical Patent Lifecycles Conference

Posted on August 01, 2009
American Conference Institute (ACI) will be holding its 10th Maximizing Pharmaceutical Patent Lifecycles on October 7-8, 2009 in New York, NY. The conference will allow attendees to: ? See how a new global legal paradigm for pharmaceutical patent life cycles is being shaped by forces in the U...

Ex parte Competitive Technologies, Inc. (B.P.A.I. 2009)

Posted on July 31, 2009
Board Finds Metabolite Claim to be Patentable By Kevin E. Noonan -- The most significant non-decision from the Supreme Court in recent memory is Justice Breyer's dissent over the Court's decision to dismiss its granted certiorari petition (as improvidently granted) in the Laboratory Corp...

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Fish & Richardson Catches Error in Patent Office's PTA Calculation

Posted on July 31, 2009
By Sydney Kokjohn -- Fish & Richardson and its pharmaceutical client Japan Tobacco Inc. recently discovered another error in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's method of calculating patent term adjustment ("PTA"). On January 8, 2009, Fish & Richardson filed an Application for Patent Term Adjustment under 37 C...

Senate Judiciary Committee to Consider Kappos Nomination on Wednesday

Posted on July 29, 2009
By Donald Zuhn -- On Wednesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on several nominations, including that of David Kappos for Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The Committee, which is scheduled to begin the hearing at 10:00 am (EST), will also be considering nominees for the Eleventh Circuit and the South Dakota District Court...

Follow-on Biologics News Briefs - No. 6

Posted on July 29, 2009
By Donald Zuhn -- BIO CEO Cites Letters from Patient Groups Supporting Longer Exclusivity Period Last week, BIO President and CEO Jim Greenwood (at right) noted that a number of patient groups had joined BIO in seeking passage of a follow-on biologics bill providing a minimum of 12 years of data exclusivity...

Senate Judiciary Committee Hears from Director Nominee

Posted on July 29, 2009
By Donald Zuhn -- Today, the Senate Judiciary Committee heard testimony from David Kappos (at right), the Obama Administration's nominee for Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. While the hearing was mostly uneventful, Senator Arlen Specter (D-PA) provided an interesting line of questioning when he asked Mr...

University of Pittsburgh v. Hedrick (Fed. Cir. 2009)

Posted on July 28, 2009
For Stem Cells, It Seems That Conception Is Enough By Kevin E. Noonan -- On Thursday, the Federal Circuit affirmed a District Court determination that the University of Pittsburgh had established, by clear and convincing evidence, that four inventors had been improperly named in U...

Could the "New Rules" Nightmare Finally Be Over?

Posted on July 27, 2009
By Kevin E. Noonan -- Hal Wegner has shared with Patent Docs papers filed by the Department of Justice (DOJ) on Friday, asking the Federal Circuit to defer proceedings on its en banc review of the panel decision in Tafas v. Doll. The basis for this request is to give Under Secretary-designate David Kappos the opportunity to consider what action should be taken in the case...

Court Report

Posted on July 26, 2009
By Sherri Oslick -- About Court Report: Each week we will report briefly on recently filed biotech and pharma cases, and a few interesting cases will be selected for periodic monitoring. King Pharmaceuticals Inc. et al. v. Sandoz Inc. 2:09-cv-03587; filed July 21, 2009 in the District Court of New Jersey ? Plaintiffs: King Pharmaceuticals Inc...

Conference & CLE Calendar

Posted on July 26, 2009
July 29, 2009 - Pharmaceutical Antitrust Initiatives and Developments in the U.S. and Abroad*** (American Conference Institute) - 1:00-2:30 PM (EST) July 30 - August 4, 2009 - 2009 Annual Meeting (American Bar Association) - Chicago, IL August 4, 2009 - Venue in Patent Litigation: New Strategies after Genetech and TS Tech USA (Strafford) - 1:00-2:30 PM (EST) August 17-18, 2009 - Advanced Patent Prosecution Workshop 2009: Claim Drafting & Amendment Writing (Practising Law Institute) - San Francisco, CA September 1, 2009 - Prior Art & Obviousness 2009: The PTO & CAFC Perspective on Patent Law Sections 102 & 103...

ACI Biotech Patents Conference

Posted on July 25, 2009
American Conference Institute (ACI) will be holding its 11th Advanced Forum on Biotech Patents on September 30 to October 1, 2009 in Boston, MA. The conference will allow attendees to: ? Adopt a practical approach to incorporating follow-on biologics into your current patent strategies; ? Implement best practices for avoiding § 112 and § 103 rejections in light of Kubin, Ariad, and KSR for patenting biotech inventions including gene sequences; ? Establish effective strategies to overcome charges of inequitable conduct; ? Uncover ways to overcome increasing rejections related to diagnostic and treatment claims and integrate Bilski and related precedents into...

Venue in Patent Litigation CLE

Posted on July 25, 2009
Strafford will be offering a CLE seminar entitled: "Venue in Patent Litigation: New Strategies after Genentech and TS Tech USA" on August 4, 2009 from 1:00-2:30 PM (EST). The CLE will examine the latest case law developments on patent venue, discuss the evolving venue standards in patent litigation, and offer strategies for pursuing and defending motions to transfer venue...

Bristol-Myers Squibb to Acquire Medarex

Posted on July 24, 2009
By Sherri Oslick -- On Wednesday Bristol-Myers Squibb and Medarex, Inc. announced that they have entered into a definitive merger agreement by which Bristol-Myers Squibb will acquire Medarex for $2.4 billion. With Medarex holding approximately $300 million in net cash and marketable securities, the purchase prices is effectively about $2...

USPTO e-Office Action Program Launches

Posted on July 23, 2009
By Christopher P. Singer -- The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued a press release on July 21, announcing the start of the e-Office Action program following a successful pilot version of the program. The e-Office Action program allows participating patent applicants to receive e-mail notifications of office communications, rather than receiving the usual paper notifications by regular mail...

USPTO Announces A "No Decision" Regarding Annual Practitioner Fee

Posted on July 23, 2009
By Christopher P. Singer -- After much speculation and rumor regarding the practitioner maintenance fee (see "Annual Fee for Registered Practitioners May Be Delayed"), the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office posted an announcement clarifying that, "[t]he Final Rules adopted in November 2008 do not specify the date by which the annual fee, if collected, must be paid...

Biotech/Pharma Docket

Posted on July 22, 2009
By Suresh Pillai -- Judge Denies Attorneys Fees to Sandoz in Dispute with Sanofi-Aventis The U.S. District Court for the Central District of California denied Sandoz Inc.'s motion seeking attorneys' fees and costs in its patent infringement suit with Sanofi-Aventis...

Ironically, It Seems Big Pharma Is Preferred by Venezuelan People

Posted on July 21, 2009
By Kevin E. Noonan -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez (at right) made headlines last month, and caused not a small amount of consternation, with the pronouncement that his government would act to prevent foreign (read: Western or U.S.) drug companies from enforcing patents to maintain high drug prices in his country...

Annual Fee for Registered Practitioners May Be Delayed

Posted on July 21, 2009
By Christopher P. Singer -- As previously reported on Patent Docs, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) had planned to institute an annual fee for all registered practitioners (73 Fed. Reg. 67750). The fee was intended to be required for practitioners to maintain active status to practice before the Office, and was thought to be due in fiscal year 2009 (i...

Follow-on Biologics News Briefs - No. 5

Posted on July 20, 2009
By Donald Zuhn -- Virginia Governor: Time Has Come to Move Forward Virginia Governor Timothy Kaine, once a candidate to be President Obama's running mate, sent a letter to the Virginia Congressional delegation at the end of June, stating that he was "encouraged by efforts in Congress to strengthen the approval process for biogeneric and biosimilar products," and "strongly encourag[ed the delegation] to move forward with legislation this year...

Conference & CLE Calendar

Posted on July 20, 2009
July 20, 2009 - Buying, Selling and Licensing Patents: Strategies for Turning Your Patent Portfolios into Revenue Streams (Law Seminars International) - Washington, DC July 21-22, 2009 - FDA Boot Camp*** (American Conference Institute) - Chicago, IL July 23-24, 2009 - Advanced Patent Prosecution Workshop 2009: Claim Drafting & Amendment Writing (Practising Law Institute) - New York, NY July 29, 2009 - Pharmaceutical Antitrust Initiatives and Developments in the U...

2009 World Stem Cell Summit

Posted on July 18, 2009
The 2009 World Stem Cell Summit will be taking place on September 21-22 in Baltimore, MD. The 2009 Summit, which is being organized in part by the Genetics Policy Institute, will bring together researchers, clinicians, business pathfinders, key policy-makers, regulators, advocates, and experts in law and ethics to give presentations, share information, and chart the future of regenerative medicine...

IPO 2009 Annual Meeting

Posted on July 18, 2009
The Intellectual Property Owners Association (IPO) will be holding its 2009 Annual Meeting on September 13-15, 2009 in Chicago, IL. Among the presentations being offered at the annual meeting are: ? Building, protecting and getting the most out of your IP portfolio in today's economic climate: A New quality-and-cost paradigm; ? Remedies: Damages and injunctive relief from various perspectives; ? IPO corporate IP management benchmarking survey; ? Local Model Patent Rules; ? Consequences to indemnification in view of Quanta Computer v...

PLI Developments in Pharmaceutical and Biotech Patent Law Seminar

Posted on July 18, 2009
Practising Law Institute (PLI) will be holding a seminar on Developments in Pharmaceutical and Biotech Patent Law on September 17, 2009 in New York, NY and on October 14, 2009 in San Francisco, CA. Groupcasts of the New York session will also be held in Boston, MA; Philadelphia, PA; Pittsburgh, PA; and New Brunswick, NJ...

Former House Economist Testifies at Follow-on Biologics Hearing

Posted on July 17, 2009
By Donald Zuhn -- In a hearing on follow-on biologics held earlier this week, the House Subcommittee on the Courts and Competition Policy heard testimony from seven witnesses including Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA), economist Alex Brill, Momenta Pharmaceuticals General Counsel Bruce Leicher, and representatives from the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), U...

The Risk of Biogenerics

Posted on July 16, 2009
By Kevin E. Noonan -- Follow-on biologic drugs, or biosimilars as they are called in Europe, are once again the subject of attempts by Congress to provide a regulatory pathway for approval. Currently, these drugs are not regulated by the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act and hence not subject to the provisions of the Hatch-Waxman Act that promote generic versions of small molecule drugs...

House Subcommittee Holds Hearing on Follow-on Biologics

Posted on July 15, 2009
By Donald Zuhn -- This afternoon, the House Subcommittee on the Courts and Competition Policy held a hearing on follow-on biologics entitled "Biologics and Biosimilars: Balancing Incentives for Innovation." Among the witnesses appearing before the Subcommittee were Rep...

Biotech/Pharma Docket

Posted on July 15, 2009
By Suresh Pillai -- Settlement Announced in Eloxatin® Suit The U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey has issued an order announcing a settlement of all outstanding litigation between Sanofi-Aventis and Ebewe Pharma over Eloxatin®, a colon cancer drug marketed and distributed by Sanofi...

NVCA Study Supports 12-Year Data Exclusivity Period

Posted on July 14, 2009
By Donald Zuhn -- On Friday, the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) released the results of a study suggesting that "a data exclusivity period of at least 12 years for innovator products is a critical fulcrum in the effort to balance cost with the preservation of biotech innovation...

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