Section 292 of the Patent Act provides that a person who falsely marks an unpatented article as being patented, where the false patent marking was done with an intent to deceive the public, [s]hall be fined not more than $500 for every such offense. See 35 U.S.C. § 292(a).  The statute permits a qui tam […]

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled in favor of Roche in a longstanding patent-infringement dispute with Stanford University regarding ownership of PCR-based test kits for the HIV virus. Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University et al. v. Roche Molecular Systems et al. (09 2008-1509, -1510). Earlier, a district […]

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld a decision that Janssen Pharmaceutica NV’s patent covering a method for treating Alzheimer’s disease was invalid after it was attacked by a whole gaggle of generic-drug companies. In a 2-1 decision, the Federal Circuit agreed with the district court’s decision that Janssen’s patent was invalid […]

Teva was unable to show inequitable conduct in its attempt to get AstraZeneca’s U.S. Pat. No. 4,879,288 declared invalid when the district court ruled that there wasn’t sufficient evidence that, in prosecution of the subject patent application in the Patent and Trademark Office, AstraZeneca made a misrepresentation of material fact or an omission of material […]

The infamous Troll Tracker suit has come to an end.  As we reported, Rick Frenkel, the anonymous blogger of the Troll Tracker blog who revealed his identity, along with his employer Cisco, were sued for defamation by two attorneys from Texas, Eric Albritton and T. John “Johnny” Ward, Jr. The lawsuit was over a posting […]

After Amgen tried to get a judgment against Hoffman-La Roche that Roche’s product, MIRCERA®, would infringe Amgen’s five patents if imported into the United States, Roche tried to get the patents invalidated. Amgen v. Hoffman-La Roche (09-1020, -1096). The patents, U.S. Patent Nos. 5,441,868, 5,547,933, 5,618,698, 5,756,349, and 5,955,422, relate to the production of erythropoietin […]

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld a patent directed to certain fermentation methods used to produce fatty acids such as DHA and reversed the trial court’s interpretation of the term animal to exclude humans in claims directed to methods of increasing the concentration of microbial omega-3 fatty acids such as DHA […]

In 1995, Beth Jacobson’s late husband, Dr. Ira Wolmer was diagnosed with multiple myeloma; an incurable blood cancer that develops in the bone marrow. Ms. Jacobson, a lawyer, devoted her efforts to identify treatment options for her husband, which led her to request that he be treated with Thalomid, Celgene’s brand name for thalidomide. While […]