Patent Baristas

Every now and then I have an application that is subject to a secrecy order by the government that restricts disclosure of the invention and prevents the publishing or granting of a patent. I noticed that a current application being held up really doesn’t seem to contain sensitive information but the application may have triggered […]

I don’t know what it is about the recent uptick in conflict issues but now the Washington Post has reported that federal prosecutors have charged a senior scientist at the National Institutes of Health with conflict of interest for taking fees from a drug company that was involved with his government research. Dr. P. Trey […]

I received the following note from a reader asking if anyone would have suggestions on the following fact pattern: I am preparing a petition to revive a US application that has gone abandoned, we think unintentionally. There are a number of case specific issues, which are not expressly provided for in MPEP 711.03. In particular, […]

I will be attending the American Conference Institute’s 7th Advanced Forum on Biotech Patents: Analysis, Insights and Strategies for New Challenges in Biotech Patent Practices in Boston, MA on November 29 and 30. I will be on a panel discussion moderated by Dennis Crouch, entitled “Roundtable Wrap Up – Reviewing the Year in Patents with […]

Many are asking what will happen if Democrats take control of the House and Senate. While I’m not interested in taking sides, I think that the issue is certainly on everyone’s mind at the moment since it could effect how business is done after the elections. In the end, I think that the issues will […]

There is now a website that pays doctors to post medical observations, including reports on side effects and off label uses. Needless to say, this has raised some eyebrows. Sermo Inc. runs a website, sermo.com, as a password-protected private forum where raw postings by doctors can be viewed, for a fee, by Wall Street investment […]

Conflicts of interest in the pharmaceuticals area have been in the news quite a bit lately. I don’t think that it indicates any new trend or that the world going to hell in a handbasket. I think if you want to know the root of the issue, you need look no further than the bottom […]

Patents Drive the Economy A Special Report in the Toledo Blade newspaper points out that Ohio’s economy is closely tied to innovation. Manufacturing job loss doesn’t explain why the economy is lagging in certain states, like Ohio. A study by the Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank concluded that patents per-capita were the source of Ohio’s wealth. […]