Patent Law Weblog
Category: Novelty
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By Andrew Williams — One of the first IPR petitions ever filed, IPR2012-0006, was related to biotechnology — specifically DNA sequencing. Illumina, Inc. filed that petition, and two others, IPR2012-00007 and IPR2013-00011, against patents owned by The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York ("Columbia"). The PTAB issued its Final Written Decisions…
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By Kevin E. Noonan — On September 2nd, the Patent Trial and Appeals Board (PTAB) entered judgment in an inter partes review styled Ariosa Diagnostics v. Isis Innovation Ltd. (IPR 2012-00022). The Board found that Ariosa demonstrated, by a preponderance of the evidence of record, that claims 1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 19, 20, 24,…
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By Michael Greenfield — In a not particularly well-written opinion that breaks no new ground, the Federal Circuit considered a consolidated appeal of two patents directed to methods of promoting hair growth, including, in particular, eyelash hair growth using compounds and analogs that were previously known for their utility in treating glaucoma. Allergan had asserted…
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By Andrew Williams — Earlier this month, on March 6, 2014, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board ("Board") issued three related inter partes review opinions, marking the first set of opinions related to either the Biotech or Pharmaceutical industry. The cases were IPR2012-00006, IPR2012-00007, and IPR2013-00011, and the parties were Illumina, Inc. (Petitioner) and The Trustees of Columbia…
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By Donald Zuhn — On November 22, the Federal Circuit reversed a determination by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board affirming the rejection of the claims 1, 8-11, and 14 of U.S. Application No. 11/145,716 as anticipated by DE Patent No. 10053155 A1 ("Jungkeit") and as obvious in view Jungkeit and U.S. Patent No. 6,107,349. …
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By Kevin E. Noonan — Last week, the Federal Circuit in a non-precedential opinion, invalidated claims to Orange Book-listed patents on omega-three fatty acid formulations in Pronova Biopharma Norge v. Teva Pharmaceuticals USA. The grounds for reversing the District Court's finding that the defendant had not established invalidity under the public use statutory bar under…
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By Andrew Williams — When assessing the validity of a patent, you cannot ignore the dependent claims. That was the main takeaway from the recent Federal Circuit case, Research Foundation of State University of New York v. Mylan Pharmaceuticals Inc. In that case, the lower court had invalidated all of the asserted claims of two…
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By Kevin E. Noonan — Enactment of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act in 2011 focused the patenting community on the changes of U.S. patent law from "first to invent" under the 1952 Patent Act to "first inventor to file" under the AIA as the basis for deciding priority and defining the scope of prior art…
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Cats and the Federal Circuit By Kevin E. Noonan — Unlike dog breeds that tend to be of ancient vintage (Labra-doodles and Yorkie-poos to the contrary), many cat breeds are of relatively recent parentage. While there are many naturally occurring breeds (such as Maine Coons and Norwegian Forest Cats), a surprising number of cat breeds…
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By Kevin E. Noonan — In a case otherwise of little interest to the biotech/pharma community, the Federal Circuit last month increased the burden on proving patentability created by prior art references for patent applicants and patentees. This was accomplished by defining a presumption of enablement not only for prior patents and published patent applications…
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