Patent Baristas

According to the Center for Public Integrity, Big Pharma has certainly benefited from the more than $800 million spent since 1998 on lobbyists and political campaigns. Not exactly chump-change. While industry trade group, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) claims the money helped patients, they hired a former U.S. ambassador to Canada and his […]

There has been a lot of reporting of allegations of misconduct by U.S. researchers. The Department of Health and Human Services received 274 complaints — 50 percent higher than 2003 and the most since 1989 when the federal government established a program to deal with scientific misconduct. The federal Office of Research Integrity closed only […]

An FDA advisory panel announced that Novartis AG’s Foradil asthma drug, marketed by Schering-Plough Corp., should have a warning about the risk for worsened breathing similar to that on GlaxoSmithKline Plc’s Advair and Serevent. The drug shares the ingredient salmeterol with London-based Glaxo’s Advair and Serevent. All three medicines work by easing constriction within the […]

Today’s post comes from Guest Barista C. Lee Thomason, an expert with over twenty years experience in complex patent infringement suits, on the much-anticipated Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit decision in Phillips v. AWH Corp.: The en banc decision in the Phillips case urges that claim construction will be done essentially in accord […]

Brazil has threatened to break a patent for Kaletra, one of three anti-retrovirals made by Abbott Laboratories Inc. Brazil said the price of Abbott’s combination Lopinavir and Ritonavir pill is so high it created a public health threat. Brazil is encouraging other countries to use the World Trade Organization‘s rules on patents to challenge pharmaceutical […]

Did Pfizer get punked by a nonprofit? The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued a ruling on one of several patents that Pfizer holds on Lipitor (atorvastatin), its top-selling cholesterol drug. In the reexamination proceeding initiated last year by the Public Patent Foundation (“PUBPAT”), the USPTO rejected all 44 of the claims of U.S. […]

The TechnoLawyer Blog’s Eighth Annual TechnoLawyer @ Awards where announced for best products, services, and Web sites in a variety of categories. While the Patent Baristas didn’t win as Best Coffee-Themed, Bio-Pharma Patent Law Blog, our congrats go out to Dennis Crouch’s Patently-O: Patent Law Blog for Favorite Practice Area Blog (definitely one of our […]

A U.S. District Court jury in Delaware yesterday dealt a blow to Boston Scientific Corp. finding that it infringed two cardiac stent patents of its main competitor in the field, Johnson & Johnson. BSX could be forced to pay damages to J&J although the exact amount will not be set until August at a separate […]