Patent Baristas

After Amgen tried to get a judgment against Hoffman-La Roche that Roche’s product, MIRCERA®, would infringe Amgen’s five patents if imported into the United States, Roche tried to get the patents invalidated. Amgen v. Hoffman-La Roche (09-1020, -1096). The patents, U.S. Patent Nos. 5,441,868, 5,547,933, 5,618,698, 5,756,349, and 5,955,422, relate to the production of erythropoietin […]

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld a patent directed to certain fermentation methods used to produce fatty acids such as DHA and reversed the trial court’s interpretation of the term animal to exclude humans in claims directed to methods of increasing the concentration of microbial omega-3 fatty acids such as DHA […]

Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) President and CEO Jim Greenwood held a press conference today on the issues facing the biotech industry this fall, namely, the healthcare reform going on and the energy/climate issues.  Greenwood reiterated that the organization’s goal is to relieve suffering across the globe. BIO emphasized that it worked very hard to make […]

The Australian Full Federal Court has upheld an earlier decision that the duty to perform research in an employment contract did not give rise to an implied duty to invent, even though the nature of the research was such that inventions could quite likely result.  See University of Western Australia v Gray 9[2009] FCAFC 116 […]

How do you know the government is upset about paying out all its money for health care? When you’re required to pay a record $2.3 billion civil and criminal penalty over unlawful prescription drug promotions. The U.S. Department of Justice levied the largest criminal fine in U.S. history against Pfizer after accusing the drug company […]