On January 25, 2017, a panel of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) held that “Eleventh Amendment Immunity bars the institution of an inter partes review against an unconsenting state that has not waived sovereign immunity.” Covidien LP v. Univ. of Florida Research Found. Inc., IPR2016-01274, IPR2016-01275, IPR2016-01276, Paper 21 at 27.
On March 24, 2017, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that the term “red gold” may not be a generic term for jewelry and watches, and thus, may serve as a trademark. Specifically, the Ninth Circuit found that there were questions of fact that needed to be decided by a jury as to whether the term was generic.
On March 28, 2017, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the use of Ocrevus (ocrelizumab) in treating multiple sclerosis (MS).
On March 27, 2017, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the use of the poly ADP-ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitor, Zejula (niraparib), for the maintenance treatment of recurrent ovarian, fallopian tube, or primary peritoneal cancer following complete or partial response to platinum-based chemotherapy.
The PTAB issued a Final Written Decision in Amerigen Pharm. Ltd. v. Shire LLC, IPR2015-02009, Paper 38 (P.T.A.B. March 31, 2017) granting a rare motion to amend. The motion canceled all instituted claims and amended a multiple dependent claim to depend only from non-instituted claims.
On March 31, 2017, Forever 21 was sued by Puma over its “Fenty” line of shoes. The “Fenty” label has become popular, in part, due to the influence of music artist, Rihanna as the label’s brand ambassador. In its complaint, Puma claims that it keeps the volume of the “Fenty” label products small and limits sales to increase the label’s desirability.
Petitioner Unified Patents, LLC filed an IPR petition challenging 29 claims of US Pat. No. 8,640,183 owned by Convergent Media Solutions, LLC. Unified’s numerous inter partes review (“IPR”) petitions rarely reach a final written decision, but here the Board issued such a decision and invalidated all of the remaining challenged claims.
In a final written decision in Duncan Parking Tech., Inc. v. IPS Group Inc., IPR2016-00067, Paper 29 (P.TA.B. Mar. 27, 2017), the PTAB evaluated whether a prior art reference alleged to anticipate the challenged patent under 35 U.S.C. § 102(e) was a patent “by another.”
“Orphan drug” is a designation given to certain pharmaceutical and biological products (drugs) that would likely not be developed due to a relatively small patient population and limited potential for profitability. In the U.S., the Orphan Drug Act and subsequent regulations define an orphan drug as intended to treat a disease or condition that affects fewer than 200,000 persons in the U.S.
The USPTO’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) has released its February 2017 statistics. After a spike in new petition filings for January 2017, new filings returned to a more typical pace in February.
