Patent Baristas

Scott Gottlieb, MD, in a Forbes opinion, opines the Food and Drug Administration’s increasingly cautious approach to the approval of new medicines. Previously, the FDA rejected the testosterone patch Intrinsa and recommended against over-the-counter status for the cholesterol-lowering drug Mevacor. Now, the FDA’s Oncology Drug Advisory Committee (ODAC) may delay approval of new drugs. Apparently, […]

Mergen Limited announced it has resolved its patent infringement litigation case with Oxford Gene Technology.  Under the terms of the settlement, Mergen has obtained a license from OGT for its expression chips in the U.S., Europe and Japan.  This license allows Mergen to manufacture and sell microarrays, e.g., Mergen’s ExpressChip(TM) DNA microarray system for high-throughput, […]

Details behind the European Patent Office’s (EPO) decision in May 2004 to revoke Myriad Genetic’s 2001 BRCA1 gene patent have been made public. The main claim related to a method of diagnosing a predisposition to human breast/ovarian cancer by analysing mutations in the BRCA1 gene. The gene was defined broadly by reference to a specific […]

France is considering a biotech tax cut believing that tax reform will boost innovation, but I’m not so sure that companies decide on starting or relocating to one country over another based on some tax cuts. The proposal is for special tax status for “young listed companies” (“jeunes entreprises cotees”) that would help companies after […]

J. Craig Williams, on his blog May It Please the Court, after noting that "blogging as a phenomenon is reaching epic proportions, asks the question: Are blogs advertising?  Williams believes yes.  He thinks that "it would be difficult to identify a purely altruistic blog" and thinks that, in the broadest sense of the word, all […]

According to a new survey, US universities increased the number of licenses and options executed by over 20% between fiscal years (FY) 2001 and 2003. However, the number of startups created from such licenses dropped 17%. The Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM), released its latest annual licensing survey, which covers FY2003. AUTM sent questionnaires […]

Jon Gowshall of Forrester Ketley & Co. sent us a note on changes to UK patent law starting on 1 January 2005.  The changes are to bring UK law into line with the WIPO Patent Law Treaty (PLT) signed in Geneva in June 2000, and into line with the European Patent Convention as prospectively amended […]

The partners of Boston firm Testa, Hurwitz & Thibeault, LLP voted to wind up the business of the Firm and dissolve it.  In early December, 10 partners decided to leave the Firm and the remaining partners decided to dissolve the partnership.  The Firm had one of the largest patent and intellectual property practices in New […]