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Just a few weeks back the Federal Circuit decided an interesting patent infringement case in which the U.S. government waived its sovereign immunity from suit. In this case, the plaintiff, Iris Corporation, had originally brought suit against Japan Airlines Corporation for infringement of its patent on an electronic passport system. What is even more interesting about this case is that it involves 28 USC §1498(a). This is a little-known statute governing patent infringement activities by the United States government and the requirement to adjudicate such suits in the specially-created Court of Federal Claims. See Iris Corp. v. Japan Airlines Corp., 769 F.3d 1359, (Fed. Cir. October 21, 2014). […]

Connecticut Innovations (CI), the leading source of financing for Connecticut’s innovative, growing companies, has partnered with Dilworth IP on a new four part series entitled “Patents: Beyond the Basics”. The series consists of several answers to FAQs from CI’s venture companies and entrepreneurs on intellectual property strategy and is authored by six Dilworth IP attorneys, Michael Dilworth, Dr. Anthony Sabatelli, Dr. Jonathan Schuchardt, Gerard Wissing, William Reid, and Fred Spaeth. The Firm is very excited to have been selected for this distinction. Part I of this series is now available on CI’s website. Subsequent editions to the series will be launched over the next several weeks. Please stay tuned for further updates.

The Supreme Court is currently scheduled to take on only one patent case this upcoming term. On October 15th, the Court will hear oral arguments in Teva Pharm. USA, Inc. v. Sandoz, Inc., No. 13-854. This is an appeal dealing with important issues of patent claim construction. The central question before the Court is whether a district court’s factual findings on claim construction may be reviewed de novo by the Federal Circuit.

On March 4th the US Patent and Trademark Office issued guidelines to its examining corps for assessing patent eligible subject matter under 35 USC §101. The guidelines were issued in light of the Supreme Court’s decisions in Myriad, Prometheus, and related cases. See, “Guidance For Determining Subject Matter Eligibility Of Claims Reciting Or Involving Laws of Nature, Natural Phenomena, & Natural Products.” The Guidance is intended to help examiners determine whether the subject matter of a patent claim is significantly different from what exists in nature.

Some fashion trends may come and go, but in the not too distant future the majority of prescription drug sales will be purple.1 For those of you not yet familiar with this latest trend, allow me to explain.

Most drug products are small, synthetically produced substances. The common pain reliever ibuprofen, for example, contains only 33 atoms and has a molecular weight of 206. In contrast, there is a whole new class of complex drug products that are isolated or produced from biological sources such as living cells. These biologically produced drugs, more commonly called “biologics”, are orders of magnitude larger than their small molecule cousins and present special challenges in their preparation, isolation, and administration. Insulin is a common example of a biologic. It is a protein having a molecular weight of approximately 5800. Another example is the hormone erythropoietin (or “EPO”), which is used to treat anemia. EPO is a far larger biological drug with a molecular weight of nearly 35,000.

Dilworth IP is very excited to announce our newly formed partnership with the Yale Entrepreneurial Institute (YEI). YEI’s mission is to foster innovation at Yale by providing resources and education in the form of incubator space, seed funding, and mentoring, as well as educational programs on the legal and business considerations of entrepreneurship. This mission meshes well with Dilworth IP’s commitment to education and innovation. Seeing the great value in encouraging and mentoring students in their pursuit of entrepreneurial success, the firm has partnered with YEI to provide legal resources to its start-ups in the form of educational training, resource materials, and counseling.

Naturally abundant, stable isotopes have already protected the identity and origin of $1.5 billion in pharmaceutical materials against intellectual property infringers. In an effort to find a simple, accurate way to unequivocally identify and secure the origins of drugs and other compounds, a Niantic, Connecticut-area scientist developed an alternative, finding a way to use the naturally occurring molecular fingerprint of drug products, active pharmaceutical ingredients and their synthetic pathways to help biotech and pharmaceutical companies enforce their hard-won patent rights against counterfeiters and other bad actors looking to profit by stealing intellectual property.

This is the fifth article in a review of recent patents in the area of Fluid Catalytic Cracking (FCC). The first four articles reviewed patents on catalyst additives, zeolites, cyclones, and cracking catalysts. The current article will cover seven patents relating to the FCC reactor system, which for the purposes of this article includes the riser(s), separation devices, stripper and the reactor vessel. […]

While there are certainly rules of the road that must be followed, generally speaking, the current version of the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) can be a cost-effective and user-friendly means for in-house counsel and small business owners to get their patents granted in multiple international jurisdictions. It hasn’t always been so in the past, and there are a few key requirements that must be met, so knowing when the highway is an option and when it’s not the best route is critical. This webinar will focus on the improvements made to the PPH through the more recent IP5 and GBBH agreements, providing a streamlined, filing framework which could potentially save patent owners tens-of-thousands of dollars in international prosecution costs per application. With several examples and some recent statistics, this introduction to the PPH will be time well spent for in-house patent counsel concerned about departmental budgets, small business owners hoping to protect their patents internationally, and outside counsel seeking ways to better advise their clients. William Reid, Partner at Dilworth IP will be presenting a free webinar entitled Filing in the Fast Lane – Leveraging the Patent Prosecution Highway to Get You from “A” to “B” Quicker (and Cheaper!) on Wednesday, September 24th from 1pm – 2pm EDT. Read more to register…

Back on March 4 the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued what has turned out to be a very controversial Guidance on patent eligible subject matter. This Guidance was issued in response to several high-profile Supreme Court decisions involving questions of patent eligibility under 35 U.S.C. § 101. The USPTO has since held a public forum and meeting on the Guidance, at which Dilworth IP’s own Dr. Anthony Sabatelli was invited to present, and also invited public comment. These comments, including those submitted by Dilworth IP, have now been published on a USPTO web page devoted to the Guidance.