Wolf Greenfield Attorneys Preview What’s Ahead in 2024
On August 6, 2024, the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) announced the fee standards for patent term adjustment (PTA) requests. Before this announcement, all submitted requests for PTA were pending...more
Obviousness-type double patenting (ODP), a judicially-created ground of patent invalidity, has become the subject of intense interest after the Federal Circuit issued two decisions refining the application of the doctrine in...more
The term of a U.S. utility patent extends 20 years from the date of priority filing. However, the USPTO provides a guarantee of “prompt patent and trademark office response” that may allow the term to extend beyond the 20...more
Medical device companies are often well versed in prosecuting multiple patents within a single “family.” Indeed, such families are often of significant value to early stage (and later stage) medical device companies. But a...more
On August 13, 2024, the Federal Circuit issued its decision in Allergan USA, Inc. v. MSN Laboratories Private Ltd., No. 24-1061, which limits the scope of obviousness-type double patenting for patents in the same family. The...more
On August 13, 2024, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held in Allergan v. MSN that “a first-filed, first-issued, later-expiring claim” cannot be invalidated for obviousness-type double patenting (ODP) “by a...more
In December 2021, patent practice was upended by four related United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Patent Trial & Appeal Board (PTAB) decisions holding that patents subject to statutory Patent Term Adjustment...more
In Allergan USA v. MSN Labs, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held, that later-filed, later-issued claims cannot serve as proper reference for invalidating earlier-filed, earlier-issued claims having the same...more
On August 13, the Federal Circuit issued a precedential ruling in Allergan v. MSN Laboratories (Case No. 24-1061). This decision reversed the District of Delaware's application of the Federal Circuit precedent in In re:...more
Last year, the Federal Circuit surprised many observers of patent law in In re Cellect LLC, 81 F.4th 1216, 1228–29 (Fed. Cir. 2023) when—for the first time—it affirmed a U.S. Patent & Trademark Office decision cancelling an...more
In a new precedential decision issued August 13, 2024, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Allergan USA. v. MSN Labs, 24-1061, held that a first-filed, first-issued parent patent that receives a patent term...more
In its most recent decision addressing the complicated interplay between Patent Term Adjustment (PTA) and obviousness-type double patenting (OTDP), the Federal Circuit ruled that a first-filed, first-issued parent patent...more
The recent In re Cellect decision by the Federal Circuit1 is significant for patent owners who have obtained patent-term adjusted patents in the same patent family. The court held that term-adjusted patents can be potentially...more
A later-filed, later-issued, earlier-expiring child patent cannot be used as an obviousness-type double patenting (ODP) reference against its first-filed, first-issued, later-expiring parent patent having a common priority...more
In a case it described as “‘a prime example’ of when ODP does not apply,” the Federal Circuit recently reversed a decision from the District of Delaware that invalidated a claim for obviousness-type double patenting (ODP),...more
Under the patent laws, the term of a patent may be increased for delays by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) during the application process. See 35 U.S.C. § 154(b)(1). Conversely, the USPTO can reduce a patent term...more
In In re Cellect, 81 F.4th 1216 (Fed. Cir. 2023), the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held that a later-expiring patent can be invalid for obviousness-type double patenting (ODP) in view of an earlier-expiring,...more
As explained in our previous article, Canada will soon be implementing a patent term adjustment (PTA) system to account for unreasonable delays by the Patent Office in issuing a patent. The necessary amendments to the Patent...more
What Congress has guaranteed, the courts have taken away - The Supreme Court is about to receive a Petition for Certiorari in a case that impacts how long a patent protects new inventions, we expect. Specifically, the case...more
In August 2023, the Federal Circuit in In re Cellect held that in evaluating unpatentability for obviousness-type double patenting (ODP) of a patent that has received patent term adjustment (PTA), the relevant date is the...more
Hosted by American Conference Institute, the Summit on Biosimilars & Innovator Biologics returns to New York City, on June 20 - 21, 2024. Now in its 15th year, the 2024 conference will dive deep into the latest legal,...more
According to statute, if prosecution of a patent application is delayed due to the fault of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”), additional term is added to the life of the patent when it issues. This is...more
The duty to disclose required by 37 CFR § 1.56 is a constant weight on patent practitioners and applicants to cite references via an Information Disclosure Statement (IDS). The indiscriminate or reflexive filing of an IDS...more
The Federal Circuit's In re Cellect decision has caused a great deal of commentary and proposals to avoid its consequences, including changing prosecution strategies and filing prospective, precautionary terminal disclaimers...more
If the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is going to implement fee changes in January 2025, we should see a Federal Register Notice detailing the proposed fees soon. The USPTO started this round of fee-setting in April...more