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Carbon Dioxide injection has been used effectively for enhanced oil recovery from reservoirs, since at high pressures it forms a miscible mixture with oil, increasing the volume of the oil, and allowing it to dislodge additional material from the rock as it pushes through the formation.[1]  CO2 injection is often used in a process known as water alternated with gas (WAG), where the gas and water are alternately injected into the well, thereby mitigating the tendency of the lower density gas to migrate to the top of the reservoir and bypass other sections.[2]  Interest in CO2 injection continues, not simply in conventional oil reservoirs, but in unconventional reservoirs as well.[3]  Not surprisingly, aspects of CO2 injection find their way into patent claims.

Trade secret law provides protection for information that its owner takes reasonable measures to keep secret and that derives independent economic value from not being generally known or readily ascertainable. If a trade secret is misappropriated by another, the owner may be entitled to damages, an injunction preventing further use or disclosure of the trade secret, and in some cases the recovery of attorneys’ fees.

In Endo Pharmaceuticals Inc. v. Teva[1] the Federal Circuit has further clarified the patent eligibility of treatment methods which include natural elements.  The Opinion, which includes comparisons with other cases such as Vanda[2], CellzDirect[3] and Ariosa Diagnostics[4], leaves one crafting such claims on ground that is fairly firm.

In Amerigen Pharmaceuticals Limited v. UCB Pharma GMBH, 2017-2596 (Fed. Cir. January 11, 2019), the Federal Circuit upheld the Board’s IPR finding that claims 1-5 and 21-24 of UCB’s U.S. Patent 6,868,650 were not obvious.[1]  The patent claims cover Toviaz® (Fesoterodine), an antimuscarinic drug to treat urinary incontinence.[2]  Judge Lourie included a remark […]

Recent data from NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, indicates that current atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) levels are at 409 ppm as of October 2018. This is a 36% increase from the highest historical CO2 level,1 and is increasingly being attributed to human activity, namely fossil fuel combustion in power generation, […]

The past year was a big year for FDA approved new drugs and biologics – 59 in fact, compared to 46 in 2017 and a mere 22 in 2016. From the published list of approvals on the FDA websiteNovel Drug Approvals for 2018, we compiled data on the listed patents […]

As discussed in our previous article, antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) have emerged as a highly promising class of anti-cancer drugs, and significant technical innovations are being made in all three components of the ADC, i.e. the antibody, the drug payload, and the linker joining them. The linker has been an area of […]

Software is a generic term to refer to a collection of data or executing code used by a computer to implement arithmetic operations or logical operations. Back in 1936, Allen Turing, in his landmark paper On Computable Numbers proposed the capable use of instructions (i.e. software) to execute functions through his Turing […]

“You can never be too rich or too thin” has been attributed to Wallace Simpson, the colorful Duchess of Windsor who charmed King George to abdicate the throne of England in 1936.[1] However, when it comes to trademarks, a mark that is lacking a bit of heft is not likely to […]

Arista Networks, Inc. (Arista) petitioned for an IPR of Cisco Systems, Inc.’s (“Cisco”) patent, U.S. 7,340,597, relating to protecting computer network systems from outside attack using a logging module.[1] Claims 1 and 29 are as follows: 1.An apparatus comprising: a communications device comprising: a subsystem; and a logging module, coupled to […]