A new (to me) blog I noticed recently is the IP Counsel Blog by Todd Mayover. It’s labeled as “discussing issues that concern the practice of in-house intellectual property attorneys.” Mayover is an in-house intellectual property attorney for a medical device manufacturing company in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The site is well-done and has some good tips for practitioners. I recommend you check it out.
He recently had an interesting post on how intellectual property rights are often intertwined with the regulatory clearance process by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) before they are brought to market — a lengthy and complicated application process.
Mayover makes an excellent point that intellectual property attorneys should be called upon to identify proprietary information embedded within filings that may be disclosed to the FDA. This is not just for ensuring proper submission of key invention details to the USPTO for patent purposes but equally so that documents containing proprietary information may be reviewed by IP attorneys in order to have an opportunity to redact proprietary information, such as trade secrets, trademarks and information described in unpublished patent applications, before the FDA makes the materials available to the public.
