Patent Baristas

Bristol-Myers Squibb and Sanofi-Aventis announced that in response to concerns raised by the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) and state attorneys general to the previously announced proposed settlement the companies reached with Apotex relating to patent infringement litigation on Plavix(R) (clopidogrel bisulfate), the companies and Apotex have amended the agreement. Plavix, a blood thinner, is the […]

Teva Pharmaceuticals announced that it launched a generic version of the antibiotic Biaxin® (clarithromycin) XL Filmtabs® following the decision rendered on Thursday June 22, 2006 by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit vacating a June 2005 ruling which had granted Abbott’s motion for a preliminary injunction related to the product. However, Abbott […]

After being bombarded with 20 amicus briefs, the U.S. Supreme Court has opted out of ruling on the LabCorp v. Metabolite Laboratories case (U.S., No. 04-607) saying that it had “improvidently” agreed to hear the case in the first place and it dismissed the appeal. Basically, thousands of patents on medical tests and genes dodged […]

In Abbott Labs. v. Andrx Pharm., Inc., No. 05-1433, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held that a preliminary injunction granted pursuant to plaintiff’s claims alleging infringement of its patents relating to extended release formulations of a broad spectrum antibiotic should be vacated where (a) the plaintiff failed to establish a likelihood […]

Merck is on the verge of losing patent protection for its multi-million dollar drug compound Simvastatin, paving the way for euphoric generic players to enter the U.S. Simvastatin market, which was worth around U.S. $4.4 Billion worldwide in 2005. Even though there is no current Para IV litigation for the Simvastatin tablet, the story so […]

Timir Chheda has prepared a clickable list comparing the Model Rules with the PTO Code, which you can find here: http://www.jmls.edu/ripl/vol5/issue3/chheda2.pdf It’s often important to look at both sets of rules during prosecution.

I have written extensively about the ethical issues that can arise during patent prosecution and litigation. This summer, I’m tackling two topics which, stated simply, are: what patent agents can and can’t do, and subject matter conflicts during patent prosecution. This post relates to one issue concerning the former. First, some definitions: nonlawyers are people […]

I’m really quite disturbed by a recent Federal Circuit decision which held that method claims can be infringed if the method is performed abroad, so long as “components of the method” are exported from the US. See Union Carbide v. Shell Oil Co. (Fed. Cir. 2005). This case is so wrong that I don’t know […]