Patent Filings Roundup: Joao is Back Against Banks, Shipping Industry; Generic Vasostrict® Litigation on New Formulation/Method-of-Use Patent

December remains a light month at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), with just 16 petitions filed last week, 15 inter partes reviews (IPRs) and one post grant review (PGR). District court patent filings were steady, with 62, propped up by a new banking campaign by Raymond Anthony Joao, detailed below.

On the policy front were rumors of a last-minute extension of the covered business method patents program (CBM) being worked into the lame-duck session, but it was unclear whether that was just the rumor mill reacting to Innovation Alliance’s posting of a counter-statement and fact sheet lobbying against an extension so late in the year, or some actual threat of an extension being passed at the eleventh hour. Separately, the Intellectual Property Owners Association (IPO) posted a series of qualities it seeks in a new USPTO Director—mostly generic—including at least 15 years of patent lawyer experience, something I personally think excludes many phenomenal candidates from industry, business, and the inventor community.

Joao is Back, Back Again: Notorious serial assertor Raymond Anthony Joao—previously of NavBlazer, GreatGigz, Joao Bock Transactions (for which he was sanctioned for $1 million in attorney’s fees), and other various NPE assertion vehicles—has brought a new campaign, Caselas, LLC, against national banks, after seemingly waiting for the CBM program to sunset. He’s filed at least seven new suits, including against First-Citizens Bank & Trust Co., Government Employees Credit Union, University Federal Credit Union, NCR, Electronic Merchant Systems, LLC, Broadway National Bank, Credit Human Federal Credit Union in (surprise) the Western District of Texas on five patents, 7529698, 7661585, 9117206, 9117230, 9715691, related explicitly to computer-implemented means of keeping and sending banking and transaction records.

And it’s not his only new campaign this week; Joao is also behind Transcend Shipping Systems, LLC, where he (again in the Western District of Texas) has brought suit against major import/export shipping operation Maersk, raising patents 10181109, 9847029, 7482920, 10796268, 7253731; the recited claims boil down to a GPS-enabled box checker of the type you see used by shipping-container checkers and stevedores the world over.

On ANDA Par for Induced Infringement: In a somewhat unusual move, Par Pharma was lately granted (Nov. 24, 2020) moved to file abbreviated new drug application (ANDA)-related declaratory judgment actions on a single patent for a modified formulation and method-of-treatment for their long-approved VASOSTRICT® product. The original treatment, a vasopressin hormone injection that increases blood pressure (via vasoconstriction, i.e., a tightening of the veins and/or arteries) in those with vasodilatory shock, is now directed to a newly applied-for reformulation and indication—effectively, a much higher dose of the drug for certain subpopulations that test for some particular genotypes. At least four companies have filed ANDA paperwork seeking to market generic versions of Vasopressin injections, based on the expiration of the earlier patents covering the original product. This is one to watch, as it could block generic entrance to the market.