When a prevailing challenger withdraws from an appeal in post-grant proceedings, the Director can intervene under 35 U.S.C. § 143, which is what happened in an appeal in Sage Products, LLC v. Stewart after Challenger Becton...more
The inter partes review provisions of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act have been criticized for the propensity of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) to find invalid all or at least some of the challenged claims,...more
Early last year, Aurobindo, one of the Defendants* in ANDA litigation against Merck, advanced the proposition that in cases where a patent had been reissued patent term extension ("PTE") under 35 U.S.C. § 156 should be...more
Sometimes important contributions to innovation can come from the mundane rather than the extraordinary. One (perhaps apocryphal) example comes from the story of the early development of television by Philo Farnsworth (the...more
3/14/2025
/ Appeals ,
Claim Construction ,
DNA ,
Intellectual Property Litigation ,
Inter Partes Review (IPR) Proceeding ,
Life Sciences ,
Patent Infringement ,
Patent Litigation ,
Patents ,
Pharmaceutical Patents ,
Summary Judgment
After creating something of a frisson due to the apprehension that the Federal Circuit might be convinced to re-evaluate whether it was a necessary element for establishing obviousness for the skilled artisan to have had a...more
The Federal Circuit heard oral argument in Auribundo's appeal of the district court's decision in favor of plaintiff Merck, in a case captioned In re Sugammadex (alternatively, Aurobindo v. Merck Sharp and Dohme). The issue...more
2/13/2025
/ Appeals ,
Hatch-Waxman ,
Intellectual Property Litigation ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Oral Argument ,
Patent Litigation ,
Patent Term Extensions ,
Patents ,
Pharmaceutical Industry ,
Pharmaceutical Patents ,
Statutory Interpretation ,
USPTO
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has a history of attempting to challenge judicial decisions that the Office, usually for its own policy reasons, takes issue with.[1] Recently, the Office decided to challenge the...more
The Federal Circuit has been petitioned by plaintiff Teva Branded Pharmaceutical Products R&D, Inc. to reverse a decision in favor of Defendant Amneal Pharmaceuticals, wherein the District Court entered an injunction ordering...more
The metes and bounds of how courts should consider indefiniteness under 35 U.S.C. § 112(b) were addressed most recently by the Supreme Court in Nautilus, Inc. v. Biosig Instruments, Inc., 572 U.S. 898 (2014). Regardless,...more
The Federal Circuit has been petitioned by plaintiff Teva Branded Pharmaceutical Products R&D, Inc. to reverse a decision in favor of Defendant Amneal Pharmaceuticals wherein the District Court entered an injunction ordering...more
In view of the Supreme Court's "long conference" on September 30th, it seems timely to review the arguments, pro, con, and amicus briefs submitted to the Court asking for certiorari over the Federal Circuit's In re...more
10/7/2024
/ Amicus Briefs ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Obviousness-Type Double Patenting (ODP) ,
Patent Ownership ,
Patent Terms ,
Patents ,
Petition for Writ of Certiorari ,
Pharmaceutical Industry ,
Pharmaceutical Patents ,
Proposed Rules ,
SCOTUS ,
USPTO
In view of the Supreme Court's "long conference" on September 30th, it seems timely to review the arguments, pro, con, and amicus briefs submitted to the Court asking for certiorari over the Federal Circuit's In re...more
In a joint appeal of two adverse decisions from the District Court, the Federal Circuit on procedural grounds rejected an appeal from the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation ("WARF") in Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation...more
In Natera Inc. v. NeoGenomics Laboratories, Inc. the Federal Circuit affirmed the District Court's grant of a preliminary injunction against NeoGenomics in patent infringement litigation involving Natera's U.S. Patent Nos....more
Zealous advocacy is a hallmark of adversarial proceedings, whether in district court or before the USPTO, where the opportunities for such advocacy have multiplied with the establishment by the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act...more
U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-DE), along with Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), have been the motivating force for patent reform for almost a decade, primarily in their efforts to roll back legislative efforts and judicial decisions...more
Recent history of Congress's performance as a legislative body has been, to be kind, mixed, and a great many bills, resolutions, and other activities have appeared to be more for show than to accomplish anything worthwhile. ...more
Recently the Senate passed S.150 entitled the Affordable Prescriptions for Patients Act. Those paying attention might recall that Senator Cornyn (R-TX) introduced this bill (joined by Senator Blumenthal (D-CT) and seven other...more
Last November, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued Guidance to the Examiner Corps that was disclosed to the public at the March 19, 2024 Biotechnology, Chemical, and Pharmaceutical Partnership Meeting, on resources to...more
6/11/2024
/ Biosimilars ,
BPCIA ,
Drug Pricing ,
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ,
Hatch-Waxman ,
Labeling ,
Patent Trial and Appeal Board ,
Patents ,
Pharmaceutical Industry ,
Pharmaceutical Patents ,
Prescription Drugs ,
USPTO
The Federal Circuit handed down an opinion last week that invalidated several asserted claims and found infringement under 35 U.S.C. § 271(e)(2) of the claims, while refusing to modify its judgment on infringement after...more
In its recent decision in Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. v. Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc. the Federal Circuit reminds us that most verities in patent law are not eternal and frequently subject to case-by-case interpretation,...more
Last week, the Federal Circuit handed down a pair of non-precedential decisions affirming the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) in inter partes review (IPR) proceedings. This post concerns the decision in Cardiovalve Ltd....more
Last week the Federal Circuit handed down a pair of non-precedential decisions affirming the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) in inter partes review (IPR) proceedings. This post concerns the decision in Medtronic, Inc....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
The importance of claim construction, and how construing the same term facing a challenge based on different prior art in separate inter partes review proceedings can result in contrary findings on invalidity, was illustrated...more