Posts Tagged: "dry eye"

Blockbuster Restasis Patent Goes Down at Federal Circuit a Victim of Rule 36

Without any explanation, analysis or justification, Chief Judge Prost, and Judges Reyna and Hughes affirmed the decision of colleague Judge Bryson. A patent to a blockbuster drug like Restasis, which has over $1.4 billion in annual sales in the United States, deserves greater consideration than a once sentence disposition that simply says: “Affirmed.”… It is one thing to use Rule 36 to dispose of an appeal that should never have been brought relating to an invention of modest or no commercial success. But there is something fundamentally arrogant about using Rule 36 to finally strike a fatal blow to a patent covering a blockbuster drug responsible for more than $1.4 billion in annual sales in the United States. And given that the district court judge was Judge Bryson, the lack of an opinion only raises further questions.

Gene Quinn & Steve Brachmann

November 15, 2018

Allergan’s patent transaction with St. Regis Mohawks could presage more arbitrage patent transactions

News of the St. Regis patent transaction has sparked interest in others pursuing similar arbitrage arrangements that provide revenue streams to Native American tribes outside of gambling and tobacco. According to Shore, there’s a lot of interest in pursuing such deals in sectors outside of pharmaceuticals. White seemed confident that other tribes would soon pursue their own similar IP deals. “There are 500 tribes in the U.S.,” White said. “There is a lot of media surrounding this and there is a lot of money. There will be other tribes.” Small operating companies have plenty of reason to contemplate such a transaction of their own patents themselves, Shore said. “There may be no IPRs filed yet, but they may be looking to do this preemptively so that when they engage in an enforcement campaign, they have removed the risk of IPR.”

Steve Brachmann

September 18, 2017