Patent Baristas

After decades of hype and false starts, the National Science Foundation forecasts that $1 trillion worth of nanotech products will be on the market by 2015. This year, corporations and governments will spend more than $11 billion on nanotechnology research, according to Cientifica, a London-based consulting firm. Last year, venture firms invested $496.5 million in […]

Stratagene Corporation announced that it was informed that a jury determined that Invitrogen Corporation’s U.S. Patent No. 4,981,797 (issued Jan. 1, 1991) (the ’797 patent) is valid and that Stratagene infringed that patent by making and selling its competent E. coli cell products (Invitrogen Corporation vs. Stratagene; United States District Court for the Western District […]

Two recent articles this past week highlight issues that question the validity of FDA approval of new drugs. This is on the heels of the spotlight on Big Pharma’s efforts to circumvent the Hatch-Waxman provisions designed to encourage generic company challenges to weak drug patents, and alleged abuse of the citizen petition process. In sum, […]

In an article written a few years back, I’d noted that combining different forms of representation — litigating and prosecuting, litigating and opinining, and so on — created risk. David Hricik, How Things Snowball: The Ethical Responsibilities and Liability Risks Arising from Representing a Single Client in Multiple Patent-Related Representations, 18 Geo. J. Legal Ethics […]

I received a note about a new patent auction site, FreePatentAuction. There’s something very democratic and marketplace efficient in such systems but patent auctions are the kind of thing that fuel a lot of angst in the patent community. Critics worry that this will only appeal to potential plaintiffs (read: patent trolls) or to companies […]

David Fischer of the Antitrust Review brings in Blawg Review #67 with a review of the latest big topics including Ted Stevens’ internet sending, Reed Smith’s firing of Denise Howell of Bag and Baggage and the dangers of broadcasting a presidential slip. We preferred learning about testing golfers for steroids. I guess some Schwartzengolfspieler could […]

Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) introduced a bill (S. 3695) to amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to prohibit the marketing of authorized generic drugs. The bill was cosponsored by Sens. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.V.) and Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.). The effort is an attempt to ban a practice that they say […]

Commissioner Jon Leibowitz of the Federal Trade Commission testified before the U.S. Senate’s Special Committee on Aging about branded and generic pharmaceutical competition and the barriers that can lead to the delay of generic entry into the U.S. marketplace. Clearly, this comes down to money, not saving lives. Generic drugs play an important role in […]