Patent Baristas

A new report out says that all federally approved lines of embryonic stem cells are contaminated with a non-human sialic acid molecule.  New research now suggests those lines may not prove useful as therapeutic agents. The sialic acid, Neu5Gc, is found on the surface of some animal cells, e.g., pigs, dogs, and mice, and human […]

The Intellectual Property Owners (IPO) announced a call for nominations for their 32nd National Inventors of the Year Award. See the brochure here. An inventor is eligible for the 2005 award if the invention: Originated in the U.S.; Is covered by a U.S. patent; and Was either patented or first made commercially available since the […]

Reuters reported that Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd. lost its bid to keep 180 days of exclusivity for its generic version of Pfizer Inc.’s popular Zoloft antidepressant. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, in Teva Pharmaceuticals, Inc v. Pfizer Inc., 04-1186, rejected Teva’s bid to overturn a lower court ruling over whether the […]

By now, you’ve probably heard of the high-definition DVD format war brewing up as consumer electronics companies and Hollywood studios choose sides.   This is a battle between two high-definition DVD formats, Blu-ray and HD DVD, which are expected to arrive late this year and which will require new high-definition DVDs and a new class of […]

The San Francisco Chronicle reported that venture capital funding rose for the first time in four years in 2004.  Venture investments totaled $20.41 billion last year, up 8 percent from 2003.  While the total number of financing rounds fell by 1.2 percent to 2,067, the size of the investments rose increased from $18.91 billion in […]

Scott Gottlieb, MD, in a Forbes opinion, opines the Food and Drug Administration’s increasingly cautious approach to the approval of new medicines. Previously, the FDA rejected the testosterone patch Intrinsa and recommended against over-the-counter status for the cholesterol-lowering drug Mevacor. Now, the FDA’s Oncology Drug Advisory Committee (ODAC) may delay approval of new drugs. Apparently, […]

Mergen Limited announced it has resolved its patent infringement litigation case with Oxford Gene Technology.  Under the terms of the settlement, Mergen has obtained a license from OGT for its expression chips in the U.S., Europe and Japan.  This license allows Mergen to manufacture and sell microarrays, e.g., Mergen’s ExpressChip(TM) DNA microarray system for high-throughput, […]

Details behind the European Patent Office’s (EPO) decision in May 2004 to revoke Myriad Genetic’s 2001 BRCA1 gene patent have been made public. The main claim related to a method of diagnosing a predisposition to human breast/ovarian cancer by analysing mutations in the BRCA1 gene. The gene was defined broadly by reference to a specific […]