Imagine That IP Law Blog

In Sanofi-Aventis Deutschland GMBH v. Mylan Pharmaceuticals Inc., No. 2021-1981, 2023 U.S. App. LEXIS 11311 (Fed. Cir. 2023), the Federal Circuit reversed a decision by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“PTAB”) that found all challenged claims of U.S. Patent No. RE47,614 (“the ‘614 patent”) unpatentable in Inter Partes Review (IPR) IPR2019-01657. The Petitioner (Mylan) argued that the combination of three prior art references rendered the claims obvious. In attempting to sustain its burden of establishing obviousness, Mylan appears to have attempted to apply the ... Read More ›

In Amgen v. Sanofi (Case No. No. 21–757), the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the lower courts’ holdings that Amgen’s patent claims to antibodies were invalid. These claims were claims 19 and 29 of U.S. Patent No. 8,829,165 and claim 7 of U.S. Patent No. 8,859,741.

The ‘traditional manner’ of antibody claim was to recite the epitope to which the antibody binds plus the effect of the binding. This has been the format since at least In Re Wands (858 F.2d 731) in 1988. For example, see claims 1 and 7 of Amgen’s U.S. Patent 8,859,741:

1. An isolated monoclonal antibody that binds to ... Read More ›

In last week’s precedential decision in HIP, Inc. v. Hormel Foods Corp, the Federal Circuit reversed a decision by the District Court of Delaware holding that an inventor, David Howard, should be added as a joint inventor on U.S. Patent 9,980,498 (“’498 Patent”). The Federal Circuit reasoned that the inventor failed to satisfy the three-part test articulated in Pannu v. Iolab Corp., 155 F.3d 1344,1351, because his contribution to the claims of the ‘498 Patent was “insignificant in quality.” HIP, Inc. v. Hormel Foods Corp., No. 2022-1696, 2023 U.S. App. LEXIS ... Read More ›

On May 2, 2023, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) went on strike, initiating yet another standoff in the entertainment industry. One of the primary issues in the WGA’s contract dispute with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) is the use of artificial intelligence and creative machines such as GPT-4 in union projects, which the WGA sought to prevent. In an interview with Vice, John August, screenwriter of Charlie’s Angels and Big Fish, stated, “these large language models are progressing at an incredible rate. AI-generated material isn't ... Read More ›