Patent Baristas

A UK publication, Medical News Today,  has asked for input on how to deal with the growing problem with royalty stacking, the sharing of third-party royalties caused by a multiplicity of overlapping patents. The article states that many companies are forced to pay large amounts to obtain these multiple licenses and, hence, are forced to […]

The U.S. of Appeals for the Federal Circuit invalidated U.S. Patent No. 5,994,329 (the ‘329 patent), covering the  osteoporosis drug Fosamax made by Merck & Co.  The court reversed and vacated an earlier ruling by the U.S. District Court in Delaware that had upheld the validity of the patent. The patent is listed in the […]

The USPTO has published a final rulemaking to implement the new fee structure.  See the rules description here.  There is a discussion of new section 1.52(f)(1). Section 1.52: Section 1.52(f)(1) is added to provide that any sequence listing in an electronic medium in compliance with ?? 1.52(e) and 1.821(c) or (e), and any computer program […]

The European Patent Office, after conducting opposition hearings, said that it will amend a BRCA1 gene patent (EP 705903) held by Myriad Genetics.  See announcement here.  The original patent related to 34 mutations in the BRCA1 gene sequenced from the human genome and diagnostic methods for detecting these mutations to show predisposition to breast cancer.  […]

The USPTO released a report that it granted 187,170 patents, including 169,296 utility (inventions), 16,533 design, and 998 plant patents as reported in fiscal year 2004. Since 1790, over seven million U.S. patents have been granted.  See the complete report here. As reported earlier by MSNBC, however, the patent application backlog will only continue to […]

Forbes ran an article that Credit Suisse First Boston expects Pfizer to hold onto its Lipitor patent until March 2010, which is "earlier than the pre-litigation expectation of December 2011, but later than some estimates for 2006." It doesn’t expect a decision for the Lipitor patent trial before the summer of 2005. This would reduce […]

The Boston Globe reported that Genzyme Corp. sued Transkaryotic Therapies Inc. in the District Court of Tel Aviv, claiming that their method of purifying a treatment for Gaucher’s disease infringed on Genzyme’s Israeli patent No. 100,715, which covers certain cell culture processes involved in the manufacture of glucocerebrosidase.  TKT is conducting a clinical trial in […]

Angiotech Pharmaceuticals, Inc. got a favorable decision on its European Patent (No. 0706 376) from the European Patent Office Opposition Division. The European Patent Office maintained the validity of Angiotech’s patent with various claims, including claims to stents coated with paclitaxel and a polymeric carrier. Stents are tiny wire mesh tubes that are inflated inside […]