Way more than an everyday interest in IP
On Monday, the Prime Minister Julia Gillard, and her New Zealand counterpart John Key, announced that both countries had signed a statement of intent to create a joint authority to regulate medicines and medical devices in both countries.
Australian biotech company Genetic Technologies (GTG) has announced that it has launched a third round of litigation against US biotech and life sciences companies it says are infringing its patented non-coding DNA technology.
Last month, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released its findings on reverse payment settlements between pharmaceutical companies in the 2010 US fiscal year.
On Wednesday, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit handed down a decision that will make it more difficult to establish that a patent is unenforceable because of the inequitable conduct of the patentee. The decision has important consequences not only for the conduct of patent litigation in US courts, but also for the prosecution of patent applications in the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
The Court of Appeals decision
If, like the IP Whiteboard team, you’re an avid reader of Patents Office decisions, then you may have noticed an increase in decisions where divisional applications have been refused by the Commissioner (we count 19 such decisions in the past 4 months!). Why the sudden increase?
Last month the Patent Office released a decision concerning a curious application. Filed by Proctor & Gamble, the application sought to protect foods with imprinted images which, in conjunction with a separate message (such as a TV ad), would provide an intera read more…
The European Court of Justice (the Court) issued an opinion recently thwarting the European Commission’s plans to introduce a unified patent litigation system. The Court concluded that the draft agreement to establish a European and Community Patents Court (the European Patents Court) was not compatible with EU law. read more…
On 24 February, the Therapeutic Goods Legislation Amendment (Copyright) Bill 2011 was introduced in the House of Representatives. This Bill proposes to introduce a specific exemption into the Copyright Act for “Product Information” documents. A copy of the Bill, together with the Explanatory Memorandum, can be found here.
Backdrop for the amendments
In a recent decision (Monsanto Technology LLC v Cefetra BV and Others), the Court of Justice of the European Union declared that patent protection for gene patents will only extend to gene sequences which are performing the specific function for which they were patented. The decision of the Court is the first-ever judicial assessment of the extent to which European patent law will protect gene patents.