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4 May 2017Americas

USPTO wins against NantKwest at Federal Circuit

The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) won a case against biotech company NantKwest yesterday at the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

The USPTO had rejected a number of claims of NantKwest’s patent application on the ground that it would have been obvious. The patent application is directed to a specific type of immune cells for treating cancer.

NantKwest sought review at the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia after its application was rejected, asserting that the claims were non-obvious.

But then the district court granted the USPTO’s motion for summary judgment of obviousness, against which NantKwest appealed.

In response to the summary judgment, NantKwest argued that this case involves disputes of factual issues that cannot be resolved on summary judgment as they rely on expert reports from an individual called Dr. Miller.

The Federal Circuit affirmed the district court’s ruling and said: “Miller’s reading of the prior art is contradicted by the art itself.”

The court added: “Miller’s testimony thus does not raise genuine issues of material fact.”

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