Posts Tagged: "university of minnesota"

CAFC Says University of Minnesota Patent Fails Written Description Test

In a precedential decision published Monday, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) affirmed the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s (PTAB) decision to invalidate a pharmaceutical patent owned by the University of Minnesota. Gilead Sciences filed an inter partes review (IPR) in 2017 challenging the claims of the university’s  U.S. Patent 8,815,830 as unpatentable. The ‘830 patent covers chemical compounds that prevent the reproduction of viruses or the growth of cancerous tumors. The PTAB found that the University of Minnesota failed to provide a sufficient written description that supported the patent’s priority claim. The Board thus concluded that the patent would not guide a skilled artisan to the patent’s claims. The CAFC agreed with the PTAB’s decision and with the ruling that a 2010 patent application publication filed by Gilead was “prior art” over the university’s patent.

Federal Circuit to University of Minnesota: No State Sovereign Immunity For You

The Federal Circuit today ruled that The University of Minnesota (UMN)—an arm of the state of Minnesota—is not protected by state sovereign immunity from a number of inter partes review (IPR) petitions filed against UMN patents. Regents of the University of Minnesota v. LSI Corporation and Avago Technologies U.S. Inc (Fed. Circ., 2018-1559). The Court, in an opinion authored by Judge Dyk, relied heavily on its 2018 decision in Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe v. Mylan Pharmaceuticals Inc., 896 F.3d 1322 (Fed. Cir. 2018), which found that “tribal sovereign immunity cannot be asserted in IPRs.” Despite UMN’s arguments to the contrary, the Federal Circuit answered a question left open in its decision in Saint Regis Mohawk by concluding today that “the differences between tribal and state sovereign immunity do not warrant a departure from the reasoning in Saint Regis.”

Paul Terasaki Revolutions Organ Donor-Recipient Matching With the Terasaki Tray

This July 8th marks the 32nd anniversary of the issue of a seminal patent in the field of organ donation and it protected a technology which became crucial for testing organ tissues to determine potential matches between organ donors and recipients. The lead inventor listed on this patent is Paul Terasaki, a 2018 inductee into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. Once again, we return to our Evolution of Technology series to take a look at the history of organ transplants, the technology that has been developed to improve the success of those transplants and where Terasaki’s innovation fits into that story.

Mohawk Tribe Ready to Battle over Ex Parte Communications between PTAB Judges

Attorneys for the Mohawk tribe have notified the USPTO that ex parte communications between an APJ assigned to the IPRs and an APJ not assigned to the IPRs cannot possibly fall within the deliberative privilege of (b)(5), as it is commonly referred to in FOIA matters… Shore concluded his e-mail to the USPTO putting the Office on notice of impending litigation, reminding the USPTO of its obligation to retain all information and documents in anticipation of a FOIA lawsuit that would seek to compel release of documents in non-redacted form… In reviewing the March 9, 2018 document release there are several other e-mail communications that raise the specter of improper ex parte communications in violation of the APA, both relating to the Mohawk RESTASIS IPRs, as well as the IPRs where an expanded panel of the PTAB refused to recognize a sovereign immunity defense made by the State of Minnesota.

Biotech and Pharma Update: January 2014

Kava Plant May Prevent Cigarette Smoke-induced Lung Cancer *** Conditional Approval for Treatment of T-cell Lymphoma in Dogs *** All-Oral, Interferon-Free Therapy for the Treatment of Hepatitis C Genotype 1 *** Favorable Markman Ruling for Dopomed in GRALISE® Patent Litigation *** More FDA Woes for Ranbaxy *** Inovio Develops DNA-based Immune Booster to Enhance T-cell Responses *** Fish & Richardson Wins Hatch-Waxman Litigation for Allergan *** FDA approves Mekinist with Tafinlar for Advanced Melanoma