Patent Baristas

Pfizer learned the hard way not to take dependent claim form for granted. The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, in Pfizer et al. v. Ranbaxy Laboratories (06-1179), held that a violation of § 112, ¶ 4 renders a patent invalid even if it would have been merely objected to (and not rejected) by […]

Johnson & Johnson’s Alza drug unit sued Wyeth (Alza Corporation v. Wyeth, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Case No. 9:06-cv-00156-RHC), saying that Effexor XR infringes a patent for a method of administering antidepressants. Effexor is Wyeth’s biggest product and the world’s best-selling antidepressant. Global sales of the drug were $918 million in the second quarter and $3.5 […]

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 […]

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 […]