Supreme Court Miniseries: Tribal Rights in the 21st Century
DE Talk | Building Foundational Relationships in Native American & Tribal Communities
Proof in Trial: Appellate Edition: Stand Up for California et al. v. U.S. Department of the Interior et al.
Tribal Tax Exemption Under McGirt Gains Preliminary Victory
McGirt Uncertainty Extends to Federal Environmental Regulations in Indian Country
Revisiting McGirt: New Legal Developments Challenge Oklahoma’s Landmark Ruling
The Immediate and Lasting Impacts of McGirt: A Novel Ruling for Oklahoma
A Way Forward: Energy Industry Ready to Fuel Canada's Recovery
On January 17, 2025, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) published a request for written comments on a recently adopted treaty....more
Following nearly twenty-five years of negotiations, members of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) recently adopted a treaty implementing the new requirement for international patent applicants to disclose in...more
On July 20, 2018 in Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe, Allergan, Inc. v. Mylan Pharmaceuticals Inc., a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (Dyk, Moore and Reyna JJ) held that Native American (“Indian”) Tribes do...more
In Microsoft Corp. v. Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe, the PTAB refused to stay ten IPRs filed by Microsoft while Patent Owner St. Regis appeals a Federal Circuit decision that tribal sovereign immunity cannot be asserted in an IPR...more
On July 20 in Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe, Allergan, Inc. v. Mylan Pharmaceuticals Inc., a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (Dyk, Moore and Reyna JJ) held that Native American (“Indian”) Tribes do not...more
On Friday, July 20, 2018, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit addressed the controversial application of sovereign immunity for inter partes review (“IPR”) in Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe v. Mylan Pharmaceuticals Inc. In...more
This ruling may have eliminated the practice of transferring patents to Native American tribes for immunization from IPR proceedings. The Federal Circuit, in a matter of first impression, has ruled that tribal sovereign...more
In Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe et al. v. Mylan Pharmaceuticals Inc. et al., the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held that Native American tribal sovereign immunity does not apply in Inter Partes Review (“IPR”)...more
Last week, the Federal Circuit held that tribal sovereign immunity does not apply to inter partes review (IPR) actions instituted at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board. The decision, in Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe et al. v. Mylan...more
Allergan’s attempt to shield its Restasis patents from inter partes review by assigning the patents to the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe was rejected last week by a unanimous Federal Circuit panel. The Federal Circuit affirmed...more
The Federal Circuit determined in an opinion last week that tribal sovereign immunity does not apply in an inter partes review (IPR) challenge to patent validity. Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe v. Mylan Pharmaceuticals Inc. (July...more
Tribal immunity does not insulate patents owned by Native American tribes from inter partes review (IPR) proceedings. So held the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in its July 20 opinion in Saint Regis Mohawk...more
On February 23, 2018, in a much-anticipated decision, the PTAB ruled that tribal sovereign immunity could not be used to shield certain Allergan Inc. (“Allergan”) patents from review in a number of IPRs. Allergan had assigned...more
In a case of first impression, the PTAB recently decided that the doctrine of tribal sovereign immunity does not apply to inter partes review proceedings. See Mylan Pharmaceuticals Inc. v. Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe,...more
The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) has not taken kindly to a move by the Irish drug company Allergan to shield its key patents on its dry-eye drug Restasis from challenge at the U.S. Patent Office by assigning these...more
On Friday afternoon, the Supreme Court granted certiorari and agreed to hear arguments in twelve cases: Animal Science Products v. Hebei Welcome, No. 16-1220: Whether a court may exercise independent review of an appearing...more
When the American Invents Act was passed in 2011, most of us saw the inter partes review process as a streamlined, relatively inexpensive procedure that would permit accused infringers, especially those accused by...more
We have previously discussed antitrust implications of pharmaceutical companies’ efforts to maximize patent protection for their drugs. Consumers and generic drug makers, for instance, have alleged antitrust violations based...more
The battle between Mylan and Allergan over the six Orange Book patents covering Restasis has taken a next formal step. On Sept. 22, the new patent-owner, the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe, moved to dismiss Mylan’s requests for...more
A Surprise Move Designed to Shield Patents from IPR - On September 8, 2017, Allergan announced that it had assigned its patents covering Restasis®, a dry eye treatment with a reported $1.4B in sales last year, to the Saint...more
Allergan announced on September 8, 2017, that it had transferred its patents covering the drug Restasis to the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe and will pay the tribe $13.75 million. The tribe is also eligible to receive $15 million...more
In the near future, Native American tribal organizations might consider expanding operations in many technological areas in view of recent court decisions indicating that tribes enjoy sovereign immunity from patent...more