Practitioners and applicants have been wondering how the USPTO would respond to the July 20, 2012, U.S. Supreme Court decision in Mayo Collaborative Services v. Prometheus Laboratories, Inc., which held that Prometheus’ personalized medicine method claims could not be patented because they were directed to a law of nature, and so excluded from patent-eligibility under 35 USC…
While many countries have laws against “double patenting” that prevent an Applicant from obtaining more than one patent on the same invention, the U.S. also bars Applicants from obtaining a second patent on an invention that is deemed to be an obvious variation of an invention claimed in a granted patent. The judicially created doctrine…
Last month both the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued important decisions relating to method of use patents in the Hatch-Waxman Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) patent litigation framework. These cases underscore unique aspects of method of use patents in the ANDA context.
In ResQNet.com, Inc. v. Lansa, Inc. (Fed. Cir. 2010), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held that patent litigation settlement agreements can be relevant in a different proceeding to the issue of the reasonable royalties that may be owed by a different infringer of the same patent(s). Last week, in In re…
On March 20, 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision in Mayo Collaborative Services v. Prometheus Laboratories, Inc., holding that Prometheus’ claims directed to methods of optimizing the dose of specific drugs used in the treatment of specific conditions are invalid under 35 USC § 101 because they impermissibly claim laws of nature….
The “first-to-file” provisions of the United States “America Invents Act (AIA)” take effect on March 16, 2013. Because of other changes to the U.S. patent system, this date will be just as important to patent applications being filed around the world as it will be to those being filed in the United States. Here, I…
In the mid-1990s, the U.S. joined most of the rest of the world by adopting a 20-year patent term for patent applications filed on or after June 5, 1995. However, the U.S. patent system is unique in that patents can obtain term adjustments to compensate for certain delays that occur during patent prosecution. The relevant…
On September 16, 2011, President Obama signed the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act into law, making the most sweeping changes to U.S. patent law since at least the 1950’s. Many of the provisions can be broadly classified into those that serve the goal of international harmonization (first-inventor-to-file), those that target patent quality concerns (pre-issuance submissions, inter…
