Patents, Patent Term Adjustment, Terminal Disclaimer

Leveraging USPTO Delays To Maximize Patent Term

Foley & Lardner LLP on 3/12/2025

Before the USPTO was subject to a hiring freeze, it assumed it would onboard 400 new examiners between fiscal year 2025 and fiscal year 2026, and still predicted an increase in the backlog of unexamined patent applications....more

Rethinking In re Cellect and Its Consequences

McDonnell Boehnen Hulbert & Berghoff LLP on 2/27/2024

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

A Terminal Disclaimer Is Not an Escape Hatch

Knobbe Martens on 8/31/2023

IN RE CELLECT, LLC - Before Lourie, Dyk, and Reyna. Appeal from the Patent Trial and Appeal Board. Summary: Obviousness-type double patenting analyses for patents with Patent Term Adjustments are based on the...more

Obviousness-Type Double Patenting Dangers in the U.S.

Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox P.L.L.C. on 1/22/2018

The Federal Circuit’s decision in Gilead Sciences, Inc. v. Natco Pharma Ltd. introduced even more confusion in an already confusing area of the law – namely obviousness-type double patenting. Obviousness-type double patenting...more

What is Patent Term Adjustment and Why Does It Matter?

Perkins Coie on 7/1/2014

For patents granted on applications filed on or after June 8, 1995, the enforceable patent term begins on the day the patent issues and generally expires 20 years from the earliest effective filing date of the application. ...more

Patent Watch In re Yamazaki

BakerHostetler on 12/13/2012

[When a patent issues] with its terminal disclaimer in effect, that disclaimer [becomes part of the "original patent" for purposes of 35 U.S.C. § 251 and serves] to define its term, regardless of any further term that might...more