Patent Law

In re Kubin (Fed. Cir. 2009)

Posted on April 06, 2009
By Kevin E. Noonan -- The sky isn't falling. But it's becoming increasingly clear that when the Supreme Court sneezes, the Federal Circuit gets a cold (if not pneumonia). And the questions continue about whether the Federal Circuit as currently constituted has the institutional fortitude to exercise its Congressional mandate to harmonize patent law in this country...

Conference & CLE Calendar

Posted on April 06, 2009
April 16, 2009 - Biologue Chicago (Biotech Committee of the Intellectual Property Law Association of Chicago) - Chicago, IL April 20-21, 2009 - 5th International Judges Conference on Intellectual Property Law (Intellectual Property Owners Association) - Washington, DC April 20-21, 2009 - 6th Annual Freedom to Operate Forum (C5 (UK)) - London, England April 24, 2009 - Patent Claim Construction (Law Seminars International) - College Park, GA April 27-28, 2009 - 3rd Annual Paragraph IV Disputes Conference*** (American Conference Institute) - New York, NY April 29-30, 2009 - Corporate IP Counsel Summit (World Research Group) - New York, NY May...

Ariad Pharmaceuticals, Inc. v. Eli Lilly and Co. (Fed. Cir. 2009)

Posted on April 06, 2009
By Andrew Williams -- On Friday, the Federal Circuit issued its decision in Ariad Pharmaceuticals, Inc. v. Eli Lilly & Co., reversing the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts's denial of Lilly's motion for JMOL in view of a jury verdict of infringement and validity of the asserted claims, and affirming the District Court's ruling that Lilly failed to establish the affirmative defense of inequitable conduct...

Court Report

Posted on April 06, 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. Genzyme Corp. v. Impax Laboratories, Inc. 1:09-cv-00846; filed April 3, 2009 in the District Court of Maryland Infringement of U...

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Senate "Patent Reform" Bill (S. 515) Voted out of Judiciary Committee

Posted on April 03, 2009
By Kevin E. Noonan -- The "tyranny of the majority" has been the bane (or at least the peril) of representational democracy at least since Alexis de Tocqueville coined the term in 1835; more recently, Lani Guinier lost the nomination to be President Clinton's Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights for her scholarly writings about proportional democracy as a remedy for that particular ill...

Anti-Reverse Payment Legislation Introduced in the House

Posted on April 03, 2009
By Donald Zuhn -- Last week, Rep. Bobby Rush (D-IL) (at right) introduced the Protecting Consumer Access to Generic Drugs Act of 2009 (H.R. 1706) in the House. The bill, which was co-sponsored by Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO), John Dingell (D-MI), Michael Doyle (D-PA), Edward Markey (D-MA), Janice Schakowsky (D-IL), Bart Stupak (D-MI), and Henry Waxman (D-CA), is similar to a bill (S...

Federal Circuit Issues Significant Biotech Decisions

Posted on April 03, 2009
By Donald Zuhn -- This morning, the Federal Circuit issued decisions in both In re Kubin and Ariad Pharmaceuticals, Inc. v. Eli Lilly and Co. In Kubin, the Federal Circuit, with Circuit Judge Rader writing for Circuit Judges Friedman and Linn, affirmed the Board's decision that Kubin's claims were obvious...

EFS & PAIR News

Posted on April 03, 2009
By Christopher P. Singer -- This past week, the Electronic Business Center (EBC) posted two notices on its PAIR and EFS-Web systems. In the notice posted on the opening page of EFS-Web, the Patent Office announced that it is making a minor change to the document description identification of a letter submitted with an information disclosure statement (IDS)...

Some (But Not All) Amendments Introduced in "Patent Reform" Bill

Posted on April 02, 2009
By Kevin E. Noonan -- Senator Leahy (D-VT) (at right), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has circulated several amendments to be proposed to reflect the "compromise" he hopes to have reached with Senators Specter (R-PA) and Feinstein (D-CA) over S...

Third Follow-on Biologics Bill Introduced in 111th Congress

Posted on April 02, 2009
By Donald Zuhn -- Last Thursday, Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) (at right) introduced the Promoting Innovation and Access to Life-Saving Medicine Act (S. 726), the first follow-on biologics bill to be introduced in the Senate and third follow-on biologics bill to be introduced in the 111th Congress...

"Progress" on Senate "Patent Reform" Bill

Posted on April 01, 2009
By Kevin E. Noonan -- Today, the Senate Judiciary Executive Committee continued its Executive Business Meeting from last week and announced that "significant" progress had been made in reaching a compromise on S. 515 supported by Committee Chairman Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), ranking member Senator Arlen Spector (R-PA), and Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA) (a webcast of today's meeting is available here)...

In re Gleave (Fed. Cir. 2009)

Posted on March 30, 2009
By Kevin E. Noonan -- The duality of nucleic acids has long posed a challenge to patent law. A gene is, in one way of looking at it, "but a chemical compound, albeit a complex one," and this view of the gene's nature has informed the emphasis on "structure, structure, structure" taken by the Federal Circuit from Amgen Inc...

Court Report

Posted on March 29, 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. Monsanto Co. et al. v. Dart et al. 4:09-cv-00474; filed March 25, 2009 in the Eastern District of Missouri Infringement of U...

Conference & CLE Calendar

Posted on March 29, 2009
March 30-31, 2009 - Pharmaceutical and Biotech Patent Claim Drafting*** (American Conference Institute) - New York, NY March 30-31, 2009 - FDA Boot Camp*** (American Conference Institute) - New York, NY April 1-4, 2009 - 24th Annual Intellectual Property Law Conference (American Bar Association Section of Intellectual Property Law) - Arlington, VA April 16, 2009 - Biologue Chicago (Biotech Committee of the Intellectual Property Law Association of Chicago) - Chicago, IL April 20-21, 2009 - 5th International Judges Conference on Intellectual Property Law (Intellectual Property Owners Association) - Washington, DC April 20-21, 2009 - 6th Annual Freedom to Operate Forum...

BIO International Convention

Posted on March 29, 2009
The Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) will be holding its annual BIO International Convention on May 18-21, 2009 in Atlanta, GA. Founded in 1993, BIO is a nonprofit association seeking supportive biotechnology policies on behalf of more than 1,200 biotechnology companies, state and international affiliates, and related organizations, as well as providing business development services for many emerging biotech companies...

Senate Judiciary Committee Discusses S. 515 at Executive Business Meeting; Adopts "Technical" Amendment GRA09350

Posted on March 27, 2009
By Christopher P. Singer -- The Senate Judiciary Committee held an Executive Business Meeting today to discuss, among other topics, the pending Patent Reform Bill, S. 515. The recorded meeting can be viewed here. [Note: the portion relating to S. 515 begins just after the 11 minute mark]...

Author of Nature Article Provides Rebuttal; Patent Docs Provides Surrebuttal

Posted on March 27, 2009
On Wednesday, we reported on an article, entitled "The dangers of diagnostic monopolies," that appeared in the March 26th edition of Nature (see "Genetic Diagnostic Testing: The 'Anti-Commons' Revisited?"). Today, we received an e-mail from one of the authors of the article, Robert Cook-Deegan (at right), providing some additional comments regarding the article: This is a very thoughtful take on our article...

IPO Board Opposes USTPO Fee Increases and Willful Infringement Provision of Reform Bill

Posted on March 27, 2009
By Christopher P. Singer -- The Intellectual Property Owners Association (IPO) today announced that its Board of Directors has adopted two resolutions, one against any legislation concerning willful patent infringement, and the other against any significant U...

Changes Coming to Divisional Application Practice in Europe

Posted on March 27, 2009
By Christopher P. Singer -- One of our European associates, Forresters, alerted us today about change to Rule 36 EPC that was enacted on March 26, 2009 by the EPO Administrative Council. The rule change is expected to limit the opportunities for divisional application filings in Europe, relative to the current rule, in an effort to curtail the current "abusive" practice of divisional application filing in Europe...

Biologue Chicago

Posted on March 27, 2009
The Biotech Committee of the Intellectual Property Law Association of Chicago (IPLAC) will be hosting its next Biologue Chicago event on April 16, 2009 from 5:30-7:30 pm at the Metropolitan Club in the Sears Tower (now known to some as the Willis Tower)...

Gary Locke Confirmed as New Secretary of Commerce

Posted on March 26, 2009
By Christopher P. Singer -- On March 24, 2009, the Senate unanimously confirmed Gary Locke (at right) as the 36th Secretary of Commerce. While Secretary Locke obviously has a number of critical economic issues that require his immediate attention, the Department of Commerce also oversees the expansion of the country's broadband infrastructure (including the digital TV transition), the Census (to be taken in 2010), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), in addition to the U...

Genetic Diagnostic Testing: The "Anti-Commons" Revisited?

Posted on March 25, 2009
By Kevin E. Noonan -- "Monopoly" is a loaded buzzword when it comes to patents. It is imprecise, indeed incorrect, but it can be effective in appealing to prejudices that emphasize a negative view of patent rights. It also effectively telegraphs the writer's own prejudices, so that when it is used in the title of a putatively academic article it can be particularly jarring...

USPTO Will Not Enforce New Claims and Continuation Rules . . . For Now

Posted on March 25, 2009
By Christopher P. Singer -- In the wake of the Federal Circuit's decision in Tafas v. Doll (see "Tafas v. Doll (Fed. Cir. 2009)"; "Federal Circuit Issues Decision in Tafas v. Doll"; and "Anyone Remember What These 'New Rules' Are All About?"), the U.S...

ABA IP Section Seeks Inequitable Conduct Reform

Posted on March 24, 2009
By Donald Zuhn -- The Federal Circuit's recent decision in Tafas v. Doll, in which the CAFC found that new Rule 265 -- which creates the dreaded Examination Support Document (ESD) -- was both procedural and not inconsistent with the Patent Act (see "Tafas v...

Biotech/Pharma Docket

Posted on March 24, 2009
By Suresh Pillai -- Settlement Announced in SOLODYN® Patent Dispute Last week, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. and Medicis Pharmaceutical Corp. entered into a settlement agreement that effectively ends a dispute between the two companies over the patent family covering SOLODYN® (minocycline HCL, used to treat acne) Extended Release Tablets...

Tafas v. Doll (Fed. Cir. 2009)

Posted on March 23, 2009
By Donald Zuhn -- On Friday, the Federal Circuit issued its decision in Tafas v. Doll (formerly Tafas v. Dudas). The Tafas appeal concerns the validity of four rules in the continuation and claims rules package promulgated by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on August 21, 2007...

Anyone Remember What These "New Rules" Are All About?

Posted on March 23, 2009
By Kevin E. Noonan -- It has been quite some time since most in the patent community have given much thought to the ill-advised "claims and continuation" rules promulgated by the Patent and Trademark Office on August 21, 2007 that were preliminarily enjoined on Halloween, 2007 (one day before they were to go into effect) and permanently enjoyed on April Fool's Day, 2008...

Court Report

Posted on March 22, 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. Warner Chilcott Laboratories Ireland Ltd. et al. v. Impax Laboratories, Inc...

Conference & CLE Calendar

Posted on March 22, 2009
March 23-24, 2009 - 3rd Annual Patent Law Institute (Practising Law Institute) - San Francisco, CA March 24, 2009 - 5th Annual Document Management, E-Discovery, and Litigation Readiness for Life Sciences (American Conference Institute) - New York, NY March 25-27, 2009 - Intellectual Property Counsels' Committee Spring Conference & Meeting (Biotechnology Industry Organization) - Phoenix, AZ March 30-31, 2009 - Pharmaceutical and Biotech Patent Claim Drafting*** (American Conference Institute) - New York, NY March 30-31, 2009 - FDA Boot Camp*** (American Conference Institute) - New York, NY April 1-4, 2009 - 24th Annual Intellectual Property Law Conference (American Bar Association...

Senator Kyl Introduces Alternative to Leahy Patent Reform Bill

Posted on March 20, 2009
By Donald Zuhn -- Another day, another bill. The 111th Congress has been on the job for a little more than ten weeks, but despite this short time span, legislators have already introduced seven bills that could significantly impact the life sciences sector if enacted...

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