The decriminalization of cannabis in some states, and its partial decriminalization at the federal level, has created an explosive market for cannabis itself and the myriad chemicals that compose the plant. The 2018 Farm Bill...more
11/23/2021
/ Cannabis Products ,
Cannabis-Related Businesses (CRBs) ,
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ,
Decriminalization of Marijuana ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Farm Bill ,
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Manufacturers ,
Sellers ,
State and Local Government ,
THC ,
Trademark Litigation ,
Trademark Registration ,
Trademarks ,
USPTO
Patenting antibodies has long been challenging. Although most inventions can be patented based on their functionality, assuming the functionality is new and non-obvious, for antibodies and other biomolecules there is a higher...more
6/29/2021
/ AbbVie ,
CAFC ,
En Banc Review ,
Janssen Pharmaceuticals ,
Non-Disclosure Agreement ,
Patent Act ,
Patent Litigation ,
Patent-Eligible Subject Matter ,
Pharmaceutical Patents ,
Trade Secrets ,
USPTO
In IBSA Institut Biochimique v. Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc. a valuable lesson was learned about relying on a translation of a non-English patent application. The IBSA Institut Biochimique (IBSAIB) hired an Italian patent...more
9/28/2020
/ America Invents Act ,
Foreign Patent Applications ,
Indefiniteness ,
Inventors ,
Joint Inventors ,
Nautilus Inc. v. Biosig Instruments ,
Patent Act ,
Patents ,
Pharmaceutical Industry ,
Pharmaceutical Patents ,
Prescription Drugs ,
Section 112 ,
Trademark Manual of Examining Procedure (TMEP) ,
USPTO
The impact on human health of the global pandemic of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and the resulting disease termed COVID-19 cannot be overstated. Not since the influenza pandemic of 1918 have so many regions of the world been so...more
Nearly five years ago the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) decided the controversial case of Ariosa v. Sequenom. In Sequenom the invention was a radically new method of fetal genetic testing by amplifying...more
As discussed in a previous blog post, since Mayo v. Prometheus, critics of medical treatment patents have advocated that such patents should be banned from patenting. While such arguments seemed futile based on the consistent...more
9/3/2019
/ CAFC ,
Diagnostic Method ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Inventions ,
Myriad-Mayo ,
Patent Invalidity ,
Patent Litigation ,
Patent-Eligible Subject Matter ,
Patents ,
Personalized Medicine ,
Pharmaceutical Patents ,
Section 101 ,
Treatment Method Patents
The federal appeals court with jurisdiction over questions of patent law has consistently held that methods of diagnosing a disease or other biological condition violate the Supreme Court’s ban on patenting “natural...more
8/14/2019
/ Biotechnology ,
CAFC ,
Diagnostic Method ,
Mayo v. Prometheus ,
Patent-Eligible Subject Matter ,
Patents ,
Petition for Writ of Certiorari ,
Product of Nature Doctrine ,
SCOTUS ,
Section 101 ,
USPTO
Will the Supreme Court’s banning of methods of medical diagnosis from patenting in Mayo v. Prometheus be extended to patents for medical treatments? Since Mayo some have argued that some methods of medical treatment should...more
Since 2012 the Supreme Court has made three landmark decisions banning certain types of inventions from being patented. First, Mayo v. Prometheus banned patents on methods of medical diagnosis and analysis. Then Association...more
Since more than half of the states in the U.S. have decriminalized marijuana (those varieties of the Cannabis plant with intoxicating properties), the marijuana business has been growing rapidly in this country. Like any...more
Like many industries, the hobby games (HG) industry suffered from unprecedented counterfeiting problems in recent years. Despite steadily rising popularity, until recently HGs were not much affected by piracy and...more
3/6/2019
/ Brand Registry ,
Copyright ,
Copyright Registration ,
Counterfeiting ,
Customs ,
Customs and Border Protection ,
Design Patent ,
DMCA ,
Games ,
Imports ,
Intellectual Property Litigation ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Online Platforms ,
Patent Registration ,
Patents ,
Retailers ,
Takedown Notices ,
Trademark Registration ,
Trademarks
In 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court decided the landmark case of Mayo Collaborative Services v. Prometheus Laboratories, Inc., 566 U.S. 66 (2012), which was hailed by some as banning patents on methods of medical diagnosis. It...more
As the readers of this blog are no doubt aware, patenting DNA defined only by a naturally occurring nucleotide sequence was banned by the U.S. Supreme Court in the landmark case of Association for Molecular Pathology v....more
The recent releases of highly effective, and highly priced, drugs to treat chronic diseases has bred a spate of efforts by activists to disenfranchise drug developers of their patent rights. One recent chapter is instructive,...more
5/24/2018
/ Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) ,
Cartwright Act ,
Generic Drugs ,
Hatch-Waxman ,
Inter Partes Review (IPR) Proceeding ,
Market Manipulation ,
Patent Infringement ,
Patent Trial and Appeal Board ,
Patents ,
Pharmaceutical Industry ,
Pharmaceutical Patents ,
Prescription Drugs ,
Price Manipulation ,
Sherman Act ,
Standing ,
Venue
The recent Actelion Pharmaceuticals Ltd. case brought to light a little-known quirk in how national stage patent applications affect the length of one’s patent term. That case involved a drug company losing five days of...more
5/17/2018
/ America Invents Act ,
Claim Construction ,
Fees ,
Filing Deadlines ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Patent Applications ,
Patent Cooperation Treaty ,
Patent Examinations ,
Patent Filings ,
Patent Reform ,
Patent Terms ,
Patents ,
PLTIA ,
Strategic Planning ,
USPTO
Inventors of methods of medical testing have had a rough time since the Supreme Court decided Mayo Collaborative Services v. Prometheus Labs. Inc. In the Mayo case, the Court considered whether a method of determining whether...more
In 2011 the Supreme Court announced that methods of diagnosing disease are ineligible for patenting under its landmark decision, Mayo Collaborative Services v. Prometheus Laboratories, Inc., 566 U.S. 66 (2011)....more
The drug company Actelion Pharmaceuticals, Ltd., recently lost a bid to increase the term of its U.S. Patent No. 8,658,675 by five days, ultimately because its patent attorney failed to check a box on the application form. ...more
Recent court decisions have confirmed that inventors run the risk of destroying their patent rights in the U.S. and abroad if they publicize their inventions or put them “on sale” before applying for a patent....more
From the earliest days of recombinant DNA technology, there has been worry in the policy community and among the public about the release and consumption of genetically engineered (GE) crops, especially crops for human...more
The current U.S. Supreme Court has been noted for its hostility to patent holders in general, but the Supreme Court has been especially hostile to any sort of life sciences or software invention. The Court has attempted to...more
5/17/2016
/ Additive Manufacturing ,
Computer-Related Inventions ,
DNA ,
Food Manufacturers ,
Genetic Testing ,
Inventions ,
Life Sciences ,
Patent-Eligible Subject Matter ,
Patents ,
Pharmaceutical Industry ,
Software ,
USPTO ,
Vaccinations
Due to the rapidly shifting requirement for subject matter eligibility, some patent examiners seem to believe that, when it comes to software inventions, they are entitled to assume the invention is not patent eligible...more
2/26/2016
/ Abstract Ideas ,
CLS Bank v Alice Corp ,
Due Process ,
Examiners ,
Mayo v. Prometheus ,
Patent Litigation ,
Patent Trial and Appeal Board ,
Patent-Eligible Subject Matter ,
Popular ,
SCOTUS ,
Software Patents
Recent years have seen a wave of efforts to control frivolous patent-infringement lawsuits perpetrated by so-called patent trolls. These started with the America Invents Act of 2011 and have been followed by the Patent Law...more
Since the very beginning of America’s revolutionary patent system, inventors in the life sciences have been granted patents for discovering and purifying natural products. It was taken as a given that a purified natural...more
Since the 19th Century, it has been considered a given that a person who identifies and purifies a useful natural substance is entitled to a patent, so long as the substance had never before existed in pure form. ...more