Heather Ettinger Image

Heather Ettinger

is a partner in the law firm of Troutman Sanders LLP and is based in the firm’s New York office. Heather focuses her practice on intellectual property due diligence and transaction drafting, intellectual property litigation, and patent counseling and procurement in the biotechnical and pharmaceutical fields. She also regularly counsels in Hatch-Waxman issues and has significant Hatch-Waxman litigation experience. She has extensive experience on patent matters in areas such as recombinant molecular biology, pharmaceutical formulations, genetically modified plants, enzyme and other large molecule technology and small molecule chemistry. Heather earned her J.D., cum laude, from Fordham University School of Law and her Ph.D. in biological and biomedical sciences from Harvard University. For more information, or to contact Heather, please visit her firm profile page.

Recent Articles by Heather Ettinger

District Court Broadens Scope of Patent Ineligibility Under § 101 for a Treatment Method

The ‘156 patent discloses methods of treating and/or preventing metabolic diseases, particularly diabetes, in patients for whom metformin therapy is inappropriate due to intolerability or contraindication against metformin, e.g., renal disease, metabolic acidosis, congestive heart failure. Defendants alleged that the asserted claims are patent ineligible because the claims recite a natural law. Plaintiffs argued claims of the ’156 patent are directed towards methods of treating the targeted patient population with metabolic diseases using non-naturally existing DPP-IV inhibitors, which alter the natural state of the body in a new and useful way, and hence do not fall within the natural phenomena exception… Superficially, this decision may appear to be consistent with Mayo – methods of treatment claims that manipulate natural biological processes are considered to be directed to patent ineligible subject matter under § 101. However… it is not perfectly clear that the treatment claims of the patent-at-issue are directed to a law of nature or an abstract idea. Claim 1 is directed to an active practical application of a compound for treatment… The decision also appears at odds with the USPTO Subject Matter Eligibility Examples.