Patent Baristas

See the biotechnology industry’s global reach next month. The BIO International Convention, hosted by the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), will take place June 17-20, 2008 at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, Calif. Not a small, intimate affair with attendance at more than 22,000 in 2007, with representatives from 68 countries — international […]

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has proposed making changes to the rules regarding when an invention involves biological material.  Often, these can’t be adequately described using just words. As a way to supplement the written description of an invention, courts have sanctioned a procedure in which biological material may be deposited with an […]

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) came down on the side of Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) in upholding one of its patents on human embryonic stem cells.  WARF’s licensee, Geron Corp., holds an exclusive license to these patents to develop and commercialize therapies based on three types of cells derived from human embryonic stem cells: neural […]

Earlier, in Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) v. Xenon Pharmaceuticals, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held that just because a case involves patents doesn’t mean that you automatically get federal jurisdiction.  The court ruled that it has no jurisdiction over the case because it does not present a claim arising under […]

Monsanto sued Bayer Bioscience claiming that four Bayer patents relating to chimeric genes, including U.S. Patent Nos. 5,545,565, are invalid and not enforceable. After the district court declared the four patents unenforceable for inequitable conduct Bayer appealed. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit agreed after finding their researcher was less than forthcoming […]

Abbott Labs had one of those days. The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed the District Court’s finding that Abbott infringed Innogenetics’ patented Hepatitis C Virus genotyping technology, U.S. Patent No. 5,846,704. The Federal Circuit did reverse and remande the earlier judgment that claim 1 of the ‘704 patent was not anticipated by […]

Jim Greenwood, CEO of the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) gave a briefing to biotech & pharma bloggers on key issues related to follow-on biologics, patent reform and PDUFA pending legislation. In the conference call, Greenwood provided an overview of the biggest issues for BIO and then fielded questions from the participants. Greenwood acknowledged that the […]

In another challenge to patents it just doesn’t like, the nonprofit organization Public Patent Foundation (PUBPAT) got the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to grant a request for reexamination of four crop science-related patents held by Monsanto. PUBPAT seems to be on a roll after successfully getting reexams of patents on Pfizer’s Lipitor, WARF’s […]