Cantor Colburn tops list of law firms overturning Myriad rejections

Law firm Cantor Colburn has achieved the highest rate of successful allowances for patent applications following section 101 rejections citing the Mayo and Myriad precedents, according to data compiled by research firm Juristat.

According to Juristat, 37% of section 101 rejections handled by the Technology Center 1600, a government department, have cited the precedents since the US Supreme Court rulings. Further, only 45% of those applications rejected on the grounds received an allowance.

Technology Center 1600 is a division of the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) that handles biotech and pharmaceutical patent applications.

The USPTO will issue a notice of allowance of a patent application if many of the claims are eligible to be patented but it requires minor amendments. Applicants are required to pay an additional fee.

Juristat measured the success rate of law firms that have dealt with at least 50 rejections citing the Mayo/Myriad cases and obtained a notice of allowance. Cantor Colburn achieved a 63.2% hit rate, while second place Marshall Gerstein & Borun reached 62.5%.

Leydig Voit & Mayer placed third (60.6%) in Juristat’s list, while Lathrop & Gage (58.2%) and Morrison & Foerster (57.3%) completed the top five.

James Cosgrove, legal analyst at Juristat, wrote: “Ever since Mayo was decided in 2012, the percentage of section 101 rejections on biotech, pharma and life science applications has been on the rise, from 4.9% before Mayo to 8.6% after Myriad to 15.7% after Alice.”

Anne Maxwell, partner at Cantor Colburn, said: “Mayo and Myriad have been real stumbling blocks for companies seeking patent protection for life science and biotechnology inventions. Obtaining claims to new diagnostic methods has become particularly onerous.”