Month: February 2007
-
By Kevin E. Noonan The news keeps getting worse for Genentech. On the heels of the announcement that the National Institutes of Health would fund a study comparing the efficacy of Lucentis® and Avastin® (see "Retinal Specialist on the Avastin®/Lucentis® Controversy"), Genentech disclosed the results of an Avastin® study done by its parent…
-
By Kevin E. Noonan The U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced Wednesday that it had assembled a database of the entire genomic complement of 2,000 human and avian influenza strains that are publicly available from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). The information in this database represents flu samples…
-
By Donald Zuhn Genentech, Inc. announced on Wednesday that the USPTO has issued a final Office Action in its reexamination of U.S. Patent No. 6,331,415, rejecting the claims of what is generally referred to as the Cabilly patent. In its press release, Genentech stated its intention to respond to the final Office Action…
-
By Kevin Noonan It isn’t often that you hear someone defend so-called "patent trolls." With the exception of publications directed towards the patent bar, most mainstream media are content to parrot the idea that anyone (other than a large manufacturing company) who asserts its patents in court is merely a "troll" trying to…
-
By Christopher P. Singer On February 21, 2007 two companies announced that they had either received a Notice of Allowance or an issued patent for dermatologically related technologies. Barrier Therapeutics, Inc. announced the issuance of U.S. Patent No. 7,179,475 titled "Anhydrous Topical Skin Preparations." Barrier stated that this patent covers a formulation of…
-
By Kevin Noonan Recently, patenting human DNA has been the subject of questionable legislation and alarmist opinion pieces in the U.S. Meanwhile, a team of British researchers has assessed the past, present, and likely future of gene patenting worldwide, and has come to dramatically different conclusions. The study, by members of the Science…
-
Extreme Caution Needed When Overcoming Inherent Anticipation Rejections By Robert Dailey Last week the Federal Circuit affirmed a District Court finding of inequitable conduct against Cargill in its prosecution of U.S. Patent Nos. 5,969,169 and 6,201,145. The case highlights the continuing instability in the Federal Circuit’s inequitable conduct jurisprudence. At the broadest level,…
-
Novozymes Prevails on Willful Infringement Action Involving Enzyme for Ethanol Production By Robert Dailey In an opinion issued last Friday, Judge Kent Jordan awarded Novozymes reasonable royalty damages and double damages for willful infringement for Genencor’s infringement of U.S. Patent No. 6,867,031. Reuters reports that Genencor, a wholly owned subsidiary of Danisco, will…
-
By Sherri Oslick A note to our readers: Patent Docs apologizes to our readers for the recent Court Report hiatus. This Court Reporter was deeply immersed in very intensive preliminary injunction proceedings and has just now been able to come up for air. We will catch our readers up in the next few…
-
By Christopher P. Singer In keeping with the spirit of Hollywood’s award season, Brian Lawler, a contributor to The Motley Fool wrote up his list of biotech "winners" for 2006. The article provides a nice snapshot of a few of the biotech stories over the past year. Using categories more familiar to Hollywood…
Patent Docs 