Patent Docs

PTAB Grants CVC Motion for Marraffini Deposition

2021-01-27T23:59:25-06:00

By Kevin E. Noonan -- The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) entered an Order on Tuesday regarding the motion by Junior Party the University of California/Berkeley, the University of Vienna, and Emmanuelle Charpentier (collectively, "CVC") in Interference No. 106,115, for leave to subpoena discovery from Luciano Marraffini and Shuailiang Lin, neither of whom is a party to this interference against Senior Party The Broad Institute, Harvard University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (collectively, "Broad"). Specifically, CVC asserted in its motion under 37 C.F.R. § 41.156(a) that these subpoenas were necessary because these witnesses each possessed knowledge from their...

Do mRNA-based COVID Vaccines Have an Achilles Heel?

2021-01-26T23:42:59-06:00

By Kevin E. Noonan -- The COVID-19 pandemic has spread throughout the globe, infecting more than 90 million people and causing almost two million deaths (see "Tracking coronavirus' global spread"). SARS-CoV-2 infection is the cause of the COVID-19 pandemic; this virus is recognized as the latest viral infection in humans of zoonotic origins, in this case bats first arising in Wuhan, China. But the world's hope against the pandemic has been raised by the development of effective vaccines against virus infection in record time, using technology based on the mRNA encoding a particular viral protein called Spike. The rapidity of...

In re Fulton (Fed. Cir. 2020)

2021-01-24T23:59:00-06:00

By Donald Zuhn –- Last month, the Federal Circuit affirmed the final determination by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Patent Trial and Appeal Board affirming the Examiner's rejection of certain claims in U.S. Patent Application No. 12/789,280 as obvious. The rejected claims of the '280 application are directed to methods of making a low-carbohydrate baked food product using egg-bound water and psyllium fiber instead of traditional flour. Psyllium is the common name for several members of the plant genus Plantago whose seeds are used commercially for the production of mucilage. The panel opinion explains that digestible starch in flour...

Conference & CLE Calendar

2021-01-24T23:55:00-06:00

January 26, 2021 - "Second Medical Use Patents -- Verifying Validity" (Gowling WLG) - 9:00 to 10:00 am EST January 27, 2021 - "Videoconferencing at the EPO" (Intellectual Property Owners Association) - 11:00 am to 12:00 pm (ET) January 27, 2021 - "Means Plus Function Claim Construction in Patent Prosecution and Litigation" (Fitch Even) - 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm (EST). January 28, 2021 - "How Allyship Advances Diversity & Inclusion in the IP Legal Profession: Part 1 - Personal Experiences" (Intellectual Property Owners Association) - 2:00 to 3:00 pm (ET) January 28, 2021 - "IP Law and Strategy for...

IPO Webinar on Videoconferencing at the EPO

2021-01-23T23:58:28-06:00

The Intellectual Property Owners Association (IPO) will offer a one-hour webinar entitled "Videoconferencing at the EPO" on January 27, 2021 from 11:00 am to 12:00 pm (ET). Mike Jennings of AA Thornton, James Pickford of Procter & Gamble, and Gwilym Roberts of Kilburn & Strode will provide an overview of how videoconferencing is being relied on increasingly for formal hearings at the European Patent Office -- for examination, oppositions and appeals -- and how this provides an option for applicants/proprietors and opponents to participate or observe from their home countries. The panel will summarize the changes to EPO rules and...

IPO Webinar on Diversity & Inclusion in the IP Legal Profession

2021-01-23T23:57:43-06:00

The Intellectual Property Owners Association (IPO) will offer a one-hour webinar entitled "How Allyship Advances Diversity & Inclusion in the IP Legal Profession: Part 1 - Personal Experiences" on January 28, 2021 from 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm (ET). Eldora Ellison of Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox, PLLC; Natalie Gonzales of Baker Botts L.L.P.; Aamir Haq of Hewlett Packard Enterprise; Joshua Simmons of Kirkland & Ellis, LLP; Ritu Singh of Dinsmore & Shohl LLP; and Richard Watkins of Medtronic will share personal experiences where they experienced good or poor allyship, and will also share practical tips on how to be...

Webinars on IP Law and Strategy for AI in Europe

2021-01-23T23:57:02-06:00

Gowling WLG will be offering a three-part US Tech Webinar Series. The third webinar in that series, which is entitled "IP Law and Strategy for AI -- A European Perspective," will be offered from 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm ET on January 28, 2021. Matt Hervey and Neil Hendron of Gowling WLG (London) will talk about IP law and strategy for AI in the context of evolving commercial, technical, legal, and regulatory environments. Those wishing to register for the webinar can do so here.