The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s six-month pediatric exclusivity rules that apply to drugs also largely apply to biologics (albeit with certain distinctions), which may become a valuable life cycle management strategy for biopharmaceutical companies (hereinafter “Sponsors”) in addition to patent exclusionary rights. At the …›
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) published the latest revision to its Manual of Patent Examining Procedure (MPEP) on June 30, 2020. According to the Executive Summary, in this revision, nearly all of the 27 chapters have been updated to incorporate new …›
The ability of life sciences companies to rely on patent protection for diagnostic methods has been eroded over the last ten years, although recent court decisions evidence a rebuilding framework. While courts have consistently invalidated diagnostic methods as lacking patent eligibility, claims re-framed as …›
A proposed bill offers a potential boon to patent owners. If passed, the “Facilitating Innovation to Fight Coronavirus Act” will add ten years to the patent term of eligible inventions. However, the bill will temporarily curtail patent owner enforcement rights. Passage is not certain, …›
Joe Adamczyk, Anita Choi, and Michael Ward authored an article for Law360 covering the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s (USPTO) decision to begin accepting petitions for the fast-track appeals pilot program, a new program aimed at shaving off time during ex parte appeal. “Appeals entered …›
Recognizing the need for companies to quickly get products to market that might help combat the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States Patent & Trademark Office is now paving the way for shorter examination timelines for qualifying trademark applications. This could prove especially useful in …›
On May 1, 2020 the last part of the German Trademark Law Modernization Act (Markenrechtsmodernisierungsgesetz – “MaMoG”), which contains practical relevant amendments to the procedural rules of the German trademark system, took effect. In particular, an administrative procedure for the revocation and the invalidation …›
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced a Prioritized Examination Pilot Program for COVID-19-related patent applications. To qualify, an applicant must be a small entity or micro-entity and the application must contain at least one claim covering products or process that are …›
The increase in AI-related patent filings in the past few years has given rise to unique questions about the current patent system. In particular, the question of whether an AI system can or should be named as an inventor on a patent application has …›
Patent applicants facing a funds shortage because of COVID-19 may be glad to hear that many patent offices have extended certain patent prosecution deadlines. For example, the U.S. Patent Office has extended various patent deadlines until June 1, 2020 and the European Patent Office …›