Science and society

The Patent Chronicle

June 13, 2017

USPTO director quits

Decision: Michelle Lee, director of USPTO for since 2015 submitted her resignation.

Reason: There appeared to be a disconnect between Obama-appointed Lee and the Trump administration.

Impact: Ms. Lee, had brought about many reforms in USPTO, the most prominent of which was the effectiveness with which USPTO invalidated of low quality patents. As many as one in four patents ended got invalidated in the USPTO through post-grant review processes in the PTAB. Lee had the overwhelming support of technology companies as a result of the reforms under her direction that impacted patent quality in a good way. Following Lee’s resignation, Joseph Matal was appointed acting USPTO director. Matal was the principal staff drafter of the America Invents Act. He held the Associate Solicitor position at the USPTO before being appointed the acting Director. If confirmed for the top position at the USPTO, he is a well accomplished and well poised to head USPTO.

Silicon Valley Managing Partner Kathi Vidal writes note of appreciation to @uspto director Michelle Lee with @Law360 https://t.co/EOFRUUhWoI pic.twitter.com/KJMttMPLu2

— Winston & Strawn LLP (@WinstonLaw) June 12, 2017

Disney wants to block home 3D printing of trademarked figurines

Decision: Disney is seeking to patent technology that will block 3D printing of its trademarked figures such as Mickey mouse and Elsa by individuals.

Reason: Currently scanning and home 3D printing of Disney figurines cannot be prevented although Disney strictly enforces its IP rights wherever it can.

Impact: The technology as described appears to be dependent on incorporation of certain materials that will prevent scanning of the figurines. Therefore, its usefulness will be very limited on figurines that are already out there. However, scanning and printing of future Disney figurines could certainly be prevented by such technology.

Disney Files Patent Application for “Anti-Scanning” Material that Would Make Figurines Harder to Scan and 3D Print https://t.co/5T5QuO2by2 pic.twitter.com/IO05m8C4a2

— 3D Printing (@Just_Print_It) June 10, 2017

Religion bound to impact certain patents in India

Background: The current administration in India has enacted a ban on sale of cattle for slaughter. It has affected sale and transport of cattle within and across state boundaries. The ruling party holds that cow is a holy animal for Hindus. Many people who are in the cattle, farm and meat trade have been hurt and many lives lost at the hands of religious mobs and armies formed to protect cows.

Affected technology: Pending patents that cover improved and more humane methods to slaughter animals. Although the claims in these patents do not specifically mention cows, the interpretation is inclusive of cows.
Impact: Depends on how broad the ban on animal slaughter will become in the near future. If it is restricted to cattle, specifically cows, modifying claims to exclude cows will help the pending applications get around the barrier.

Patents and Cow Slaughter – IP News Center (press release) (blog) https://t.co/rCPwfwFmNL pic.twitter.com/ULCICuVbnR

— PatentCafe (@PatentCafe) June 2, 2017

Regeneron vs Amgen anti-cholesterol drug patent war

Decision: Pending at the federal appeals court.
Background: Amgen Inc. requested the court to block Sanofi and Regeneron’s sale of anti-cholesterol drug, Praluent, on patent infringement grounds. Sanofi and Regeneron on the other hand are attempting to invalidate Amgen’s patents that cover PCSK9 inhibitors, on the grounds that they improperly claim a broad monopoly. Amgen enjoyed a jury-awarded injunction on the sale of Praluent for 12 years until Sanofi and Regeneron’s appeal.
Impact: Questions raised by the court and arguments presented so far appear to hint that the court may side with Sanofi and Regeneron. Irrespective of which party wins, Sanofi and Regeneron will be the real winners in the case as the damages for lost-profits and continuing infringement will be only a tiny fraction of Sanofi’s profits from sale of Praluent. This is because Amgen’s cholesterol drug Repatha serves a different patient population. Sanofi earns around 100 million USD annually from Praulent sales. A worrying aspect of injunctions against drug manufacturers is their adverse impact on gathering information on the effects of these drugs on true end points (cardiovascular events in this case) versus surrogate endpoints (lowering LDL cholesterol in this case). The PCSK9 drugs were approved on the basis of a surrogate endpoint on the condition that their sponsors continue studying their true endpoints.

Infographically speaking…..

by thewordkurt.

From Visually. (Click on the infographic for enlarged image)

See more at: https://visual.ly/community/infographic/entertainment/disney-empire#sthash.TufgFoFE.dpuf

Proprietary Humor:

Source: Mimi and Eunice

About the author:

Authored by Dr Syam Anand, PhD (Indian Institute of Science, IISc; Post-Doctoral research, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine; Faculty, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Founder and US Patent Agent, Mainline Intellectual Property LLC, Ardmore, Philadelphia USA). Syam has over 20 years experience in diverse areas of Science with domain knowledge in Life Sciences and Intellectual Property. Dr. Anand is also an inventor and budding entrepreneur. A rationalist, Dr. Anand enjoys science at all levels and advocates the use of scientific methods for answering all questions and solving all problems and make common people curious and interested in understanding their worlds.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/syamprasadanand

Feature image source: Pixabay

Blog design: Abhinav Dey

This work by ClubSciWri is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.