Patent Baristas

Arguing that there are too many restrictions being placed on biotech crops, 26 leading corn insect scientists working at public research institutions located in 16 corn producing states submitted a statement to the EPA. All of the scientists have been active participants of the Regional Research Projects NCCC-46 “Development, Optimization, and Delivery of Management Strategies […]

Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business last year started an online graduate level program, the Executive Certificate in the Business of Life Sciences (ECBLS).  George Telthorst, who helps run the program and is the Director of Business Development at the School’s Center for the Business of Life Sciences, wants us to help “spread the word” […]

Last month, Abbott Laboratories was sued by Bayer AG’s HealthCare unit alleging that drugmaker Abbott Laboratories’ best-selling drug, the arthritis drug Humira, infringes on a Bayer patent.  (Bayer HealthCare LLC v. Abbott Laboratories, 08cv507, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas).  Bayer claims that Humira®, a recombinant human IgG1 monoclonal antibody specific for […]

James Greenwood, President & CEO of the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), wrote an open letter to President-Elect Obama for his ideas on reform for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. With more than 1.2 million patent applications pending before its more than 6,000 examiners, there is a sense that something needs to give. Notably, the […]

In a nonprecedential opinion today, Classen Immunotherapies, Inc. v. Biogen IDEC (06-1634, -1649), Circuit Judge Moore affirmed the denial of patent-eligibility of a medical treatment method under 35 USC § 101, that is, a question of whether the claimed invention meet the requirements for patentable subject matter. The entire opinion is as follows: “In light […]

The Enlarged Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office gave a second (and final!) rejection of the human embryonic stem cell patent by University of Wisconsin’s Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF). See Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, Case Number: G 0002/06. Deciding that it would be against the “public order” to grant the patent since […]

As Congress is considering possible legislation to create an abbreviated pathway for the FDA to approve generic biologic therapies (“biogeneric,” “biosimilar” and “follow-on biologics”), differences in the R&D expense and product cost, and the potential for both new therapies post-approval and second-generation innovations have raised questions about how to achieve the proper balance between innovation […]

According to biotechTransfer week, the IRS set to look over the financial statements of public and private colleges and universities for unrelated income sources like tech transfer. The Internal Revenue Service is looking to gather information from hundreds of US colleges, universities, and affiliated organizations such as foundations and academic medical centers about their financial […]