Patent Baristas

Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO David Kappos has officially rescinded the highly hated regulations that would have limited patented claims and continuations — with an emphasis on the fact that they were proposed by the previous administration. The regulations were published in the Federal Register in August 2007, […]

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled in favor of Roche in a longstanding patent-infringement dispute with Stanford University regarding ownership of PCR-based test kits for the HIV virus. Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University et al. v. Roche Molecular Systems et al. (09 2008-1509, -1510). Earlier, a district […]

David Kappos, Director of the US Patent and Trademark Office, made a series of proposals to bring change to the examiner count system – the process for determining the time a patent examiner has to complete a patent examination and how much credit is given for each stage of an examination. The proposal was developed […]

The USPTO has prepared interim examination instructions for evaluating patent subject matter eligibility under 35 U.S.C. 101 (Interim Patent Subject Matter Eligibility Examination Instructions) pending a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in Bilski v. Kappos, and invited the public to submit written comments on the Interim Patent Subject Matter Eligibility Examination Instructions on or […]

Teva was unable to show inequitable conduct in its attempt to get AstraZeneca’s U.S. Pat. No. 4,879,288 declared invalid when the district court ruled that there wasn’t sufficient evidence that, in prosecution of the subject patent application in the Patent and Trademark Office, AstraZeneca made a misrepresentation of material fact or an omission of material […]

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published a notice in the Federal Register inviting public comment regarding the Requirements for Patent Applications Containing Nucleotide Sequence and/or Amino Acid Sequence Disclosures (74 Fed. Reg. 40163). Patent applications that contain nucleotide and/or amino acid sequence disclosures must include a copy of the sequence listing in accordance with […]

Take it for Pain. Take it for Life. ~ Bayer aspirin slogan Drospirenone is a progestin that inhibits ovulation. While known in the art, Bayer patented formulations of drospirenone, one of the active ingredients in Yasmin® a daily oral contraceptive. Now, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has ruled that the patent […]

Dealing with the Patent Office is a lot like standing in front of the airline ticket counter where the agent keeps typing in endless strings of random numbers and letters and politely explains that you can’t possibly make a change in your reservation because your ticket is a A389X-27-Purple ticket and not the B347L-Triple-Lindy ticket. […]