The Supreme Court decided not to grant certiorari in Teva Pharms. USA, Inc. v. GlaxoSmithKline, LLC, which has come to be known as the “skinny label” case. That means the Federal Circuit’s August 2021 decision (which was a panel rehearing of its October 2020 decision) will stand.
In its decision on rehearing, the Federal…

On April 26, 2023, Senator Elizabeth Warren and Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal sent a letter to USPTO Director Kathi Vidal complaining about the USPTO’s failure “to address the pharmaceutical industry’s abuse of the patent system.” Frustrated by the USPTO’s apparent willingness to grant “excessive patents because of the revenue it collects from patent issuance fees,” the…

The USPTO has commenced the fee-setting process for fee adjustments it expects to implement in January 2025. While many fee changes are modest (~5%), the USPTO proposes significant increases to design patent fees and PTAB trial fees and proposes new fees that could influence applicant behavior and impact how patent applications are prosecuted. A hybrid…

On February 23, 2023, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) held a virtual panel discussion on the duty of disclosure and duty of reasonable inquiry. While both duties apply regardless of technology area, the discussion supported USPTO initiatives pursuant to President Biden’s July 2021 Executive Order on “Promoting Competition in the American Economy” to…

The USPTO will transition from officially issuing patents in paper form to officially issuing patents electronically, starting April 18, 2023. In addition to saving paper, the USPTO predicts the change to electronically issued patents will shorten the time from issue fee payment to grant, reducing application pendency.
 
The Format Of Electronically Issued Patents
The…

To support the National Cancer Moonshot initiative, the USPTO launched the Cancer Moonshot Expedited Examination Pilot Program on February 1, 2023. The new program replaces the Cancer Immunotherapy Pilot Program, which expedited examination for eligible patent applications pertaining to methods of treating cancer using immunotherapy. The new program is open to a broader range…

It has been a while since the Federal Circuit weighed in on the patent eligibility of so-called “natural product” claims. While the finding of non-eligibility in ChromaDex, Inc. v. Elysium Health, Inc. is not surprising, it is interesting that the court chose to distinguish Natural Alternatives instead of characterizing that decision as being based…