Biotech news
Americas
The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed on Tuesday that pharmaceutical company Pfizer can patent a DNA polynucleotide ahead of rival Sanofi-Aventis. 6 November 2013
Americas
The US District Court for the Northern District of California has found that diagnostic claims covering conventional detection methods do not make the use of a natural phenomenon patent eligible. 6 November 2013
Biotech
Ethical considerations plus the ambiguity of the Biotech Directive are factors influencing the patentability of totipotent stem cells, says Andrew Sanderson. 4 November 2013
Americas
Novartis has urged the FDA to allow biosimilars to bear the same international nonproprietary names as their reference products. 1 November 2013
Biotech
Europe’s highest court has said supplementary protection certificates for plant protection products cannot be granted after the same product has been authorised on emergency grounds. 31 October 2013
Americas
A US company has filed a lawsuit against global healthcare company GE Healthcare , alleging it has infringed its patented microscope technology. 30 October 2013
Americas
The governor of California, Jerry Brown, has refused to sign legislation seeking to introduce changes to the state’s pharmacy law on biosimilars. 29 October 2013
Americas
New guidelines for the examination of biotechnology inventions in Brazil provide useful support for applicants, as Gabriel Di Blasi and Alexandre Santos explain. 16 October 2013
Biotech
When the US Supreme Court decided in favour of Monsanto in its case against a soybean farmer, it clarified the patent status of certain self-replicating technologies. In Europe, the result would probably have been the same, say Steven Zeman and Heike Vogelsang-Wenke. 16 October 2013
Biotech
Frances Salisbury and Lindsey Woolley look at the complex business of patenting agricultural products in Europe. 16 October 2013