Patent Law Weblog
recent posts
- Moderna Settles Patent Litigation with Arbutus et al.
- USPTO and DOJ Statement of Interest in Collision Communications: Another Thumb on the Scale in Favor of NPE Patent Plaintiffs
- Oasis Tooling, Inc. v. Siemens Industry Software Inc. (Fed. Cir. 2026)
- Why AI Will Not Take Over the World
- BioNTech Sues Moderna over mRNA Vaccine Technology
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Category: Biotech/Pharma News
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By Donald Zuhn — On Tuesday, while California voters were helping President Obama secure a second term in the White House, picking the President over Republican challenger Mitt Romney by a 59.1% to 38.6% margin, they were also responsible for defeating a ballot initiative, Proposition 37, that would have required raw or processed food to be…
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By Kevin E. Noonan — Mimicry is a classic (and classical) biological phenomenon, the appreciation of which dates to the time when biology was more accurately called "natural history" and was more diversion for English country gentlemen than proper science. Perhaps the most well-known form of mimicry is Müllerian mimicry, and the best example of…
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By Kevin E. Noonan — Long before DNA sequencing technology existed (indeed, long before Watson and Crick proposed that DNA was the genetic material and proposed a structural basis for its ability to be replicated), scientists were able to study genome structure using strictly genetic approaches. Genetic linkage maps, for example, date from the work…
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By Kevin E. Noonan — "Genome projects" for a variety of species (comprising a complete sequence determination of a species' genomic DNA) has been underway for the past dozen or so years, in the wake of the completion of the Human Genome Project at the turn of the century. While such a sequence determination remains…
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By Donald Zuhn — A study commissioned by the Partnership for a New American Economy, a bipartisan group of mayors from across the country and business leaders from all sectors of the economy seeking to raise awareness of the economic benefits of sensible immigration reform, shows that 76% of patents issued in 2011 to the…
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By Kevin E. Noonan — Hans Sauer, Associate General Counsel for Intellectual Property for the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), frequently asks (when discussing patent-eligibility of genes): "What about cucumber genes? Should they be patented?" If Hans wishes to remain au courant, however, he will need to update this question by asking "What about tomato genes?"…
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By Kevin E. Noonan — In April, the White House released a policy paper what was styled the "National Bioeconomy Blueprint." Its presumptions are based on the idea that the portion of the economy "fueled by research and innovation in the biological sciences" is a "large and rapidly growing segment of the world economy that…
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By Donald Zuhn — A survey on consumer perceptions regarding food technology indicates that many U.S. consumers have favorable opinions concerning the benefits offered by plant and animal biotechnology. The survey, which was commissioned by the International Food Information Council (IFIC), a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization established in 1985 to effectively communicate science-based information about food safety…
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By Kevin E. Noonan — A large part of the debate on patenting genetic diagnostic method and isolated genes has revolved around the effects of such patents on what is loosely termed "personalized medicine." Personalized medicine can be summarized as a dream/holy grail/GATTACA future of universal genetic information — every infant having her genomic DNA…
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By Donald Zuhn — Last week, in a letter sent to the Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, Margaret Hamburg, 55 members of Congress expressed support for a recent petition to require the labeling of genetically engineered foods. The petition, which was filed with the FDA by the Center for Food Safety (CFS) last October,…
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