Federal Circuit says Pfizer arthritis drug was double patented
The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has affirmed a lower court ruling which said that a reissue patent covering Pfizer’s arthritis drug Celebrex was invalid for obviousness-type double patenting.
SIPO rejects Gilead’s Sovaldi patent application
China’s State Intellectual Property Office has rejected Gilead Sciences’s patent application covering its Sovaldi (sofosbuvir) drug after it was challenged by a non-profit group.
Teva’s Copaxone patent invalidated for second time
A US appeals court has for the second time invalidated a patent covering pharmaceutical company Teva’s multiple sclerosis drug Copaxone.
Pinsent Masons expands Munich office
Law firm Pinsent Masons has expanded its Munich office with the hire of Marc Holtorf as partner.
Honigman Miller adds two to life sciences practice
US law firm Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn has hired two intellectual property lawyers as partners.
BIO 2015: DuPont counsel shares best practices for protecting trade secrets
Recent patent decisions in the life sciences sector are leading biotechnology companies to seek protection for their innovations by using alternatives to patents, with trade secrets the most viable, the BIO International Convention has heard.
BIO 2015: Picking apart the Federal Circuit’s Sequenom ruling
On day three of the BIO International Convention, LSIPR spoke to Kevin Noonan and Donald Zuhn, partners at law firm McDonnell Boehnen Hulbert & Berghoff and authors of the Patent Docs blog, about the possible impact of the Federal Circuit’s Ariosa v Sequenom decision on the life sciences industry.
BIO 2015: IPR not a ‘death squad’, says former PTAB judge
Scott Kamholz, a former judge at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, recently returned to law firm Foley Hoag as partner. LSIPR spoke to him at this year’s BIO International Convention, where he explained why the inter-partes review is not a “death squad” for patents.
BIO 2015: Australia may block gene patents, suggests NZ lawyer
Australia could be going down the road of no longer allowing gene patents, New Zealand-based patent lawyer David Nowak said at the BIO International Convention yesterday.
BIO 2015: The ‘silent killer of innovation’
Philip Johnson, Johnson & Johnson’s senior vice president of intellectual property and policy, told the BIO International Convention yesterday that uncertainty around patent eligibility of inventions is a “silent killer of innovation”.