Patent Baristas

“The U.S. patent system has shown a remarkable ability for identifying flaws and implementing self-correcting, substantive policy changes within existing authority.”  ~Barfield and Calfee On September 16, 2011, President Obama signed the Patent Reform Act of 2011 into law (“America Invents Act”).  It is the first major reform of the patent system in decades.  The […]

In the on-going saga of the patentability of correlations between blood test results and patient health, Prometheus Laboratories submitted its brief to the U.S. Supreme Court.  The Court granted cert for the second time in Mayo Collaborative Services v. Prometheus Labs., Inc, Supreme Court No. 10-1150, to consider whether to set limits on when inventors […]

James Madison submitted to the framers of the Constitution a provision “to secure to literary authors their copyrights for a limited time.”  ~August 18, 1787 The various forms of intellectual property (patents, copyrights, trademarks, etc.) all have roots in European laws developed over centuries.  The precursor of modern copyright law first appeared in Britain in […]

“There are 10,000 baby boomers entering Medicare every day… If you could delay the onset of Alzheimer’s by five years, you’d save Medicare $50 billion a year. That’s what biotechnology companies do.”  ~Jim Greenwood James Greenwood, President & CEO of the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) gave the keynote speech at the BioOhio conference yesterday outlining […]

OK, maybe not explode but at least some terrible, Armageddon-like fate.  According to a study by the Federal Trade Commission, pharmaceutical companies are engaging in anti-competitive tactics of paying potential generic rivals to delay the introduction of lower-cost prescription drug alternatives.  The report summarizes data on patent settlements filed with the FTC and the Department […]

A process which involves removal of a stem cell from a human embryo at the blastocyst stage, entailing the destruction of that embryo, cannot be patented. Last week the Court of Justice of the European Union issued a judgment in the case of Brüstle v Greenpeace e.V (Case C 34/10) in which it banned the […]

As part of our Supporting Sponsorship of the BioOhio Annual Conference: 2020 Vision, we have one complimentary registration to share. Just be the first person to send us your name and email address by 5:00 pm EST tomorrow, Oct. 19th, and we’ll get your registration fee taken care of on us! We think that’s pretty […]

The UK Patents Court invalidated patent claims to an enantiomer of a known racemate mixture in Generics Ltd. V. Novartis AG [2011] EWHC 2403 (Pat). Generics (UK) Ltd. (Mylan) filed an action to try to invalidate a Supplementary Protection Certificate (“SPC”) for a drug for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease called rivastigmine.  An SPC extends […]