7th February , 2010

Delhi HC stays patent revocation of Abbott's drug

The Delhi High Court has stayed a decision to revoke the patent granted for the rheumatoid arthritis drug, Humira (adalimumab) to US-based Abbott Laboratories.
           
In response to a complaint by Glenmark, an Indian pharma company, Abbott had petitioned against the decision by the Indian patent office in this regard. Glenmark had asserted that its pre-grant opposition was not considered by the patent office before deciding to grant patent protection to Abbott.

Abbott informed the HC that the patent authority had no power to unilaterally cancel the decision. It argued the Intellectual Property Appellate Board and the HC were the authority to decide whether a granted patent could to be revoked. The HC has asked the patent office to respond by April 27.

Locals wins indigenous plant patent dispute

A small community from rural Alice in the Eastern Cape has won a legal dispute with a German based international company, Schwabe Pharmaceuticals over a patent for an indigenous plant from the area.

The patent relates to a method for producing extracts of Pelargonium sidoides and Pelargonium reniforme to make syrup for treating cough and cold. The African Centre for Biosafety, which is acting on behalf of the rural community of Sheshegu has successfully opposed the patent. Alice is an area rich in medical plant species and its rural community has been using the Pelargonium or geranium as it is commonly known to treat various ailments in animals and humans since many generations.

Schwabe, a homeopathic Pharma giant had applied for a patent which would have given it exclusive rights to the extraction of the plants. The South African community managed to convince the Opposition Division of the European Patent Office (EPO) not to grant the patent. The EPO has revoked the patent granted to Schwabe, which protected a method of producing extracts from the roots of Pelargonium sidoides and Pelargonium reniforme. This extract is used in the company's top-selling cough and cold syrup, Umckaloabo.

IpAuctions to auction Predicant Biosciences patents

IpAuctions, Inc. is selling the patents and patent applications developed by Predicant Biosciences.

Predicant Biosciences, formerly called BioSpect is a California-based biotechnology company which has developed technology and intellectual property to identify complex protein patterns in blood to detect and diagnose disease, methods to relate genotypes to phenotypes, and techniques to relate biomarkers to disease diagnoses. At present five issued U.S. patents of the company are to be sold by auction along with 10 U.S. pending patent applications. In addition, some five WIPO applications have been filed.

Predicant Biosciences has developed several technologies for the detection and diagnosis of disease including the use of genotypes to predict phenotypes and methods to analyze patient samples for biomarkers that predict the presence of cancer. In 2006 Predicant Biosciences had bought Pathwork Informatics and changed its name to Pathwork Diagnostics. The live online auctions will be held from February 22 through February 25.

Major League Baseball Properties and Upper Deck in trademark infringement dispute

Major League Baseball Properties (MLBP), the licensing wing for Major League Baseball's 30 clubs, has filed a lawsuit against Upper Deck, a major sports trading cards producer, accusing it of trademark infringement by using team logos on baseball cards without its permission. The suit mentions that Upper Deck's 2010 cards inappropriately feature Major League Baseball (MLB) and team logos.

The lawsuit was filed six months after MLBP, signed a multi-year agreement with Topps, Upper Deck’s rival, giving them exclusive rights to team logos and uniforms. Upper Deck continued to produce baseball cards, since it had an agreement with the Players Association, which represents baseball's 1,200 players.

Major League Baseball wants to prevent the sale of unauthorized cards, and seeks triple damages for the alleged infringement.

The Major League Baseball Clubs had formed MLBP in 1966 as their agent for marketing and trademark licensing and protection. MLBP is involved in consumer licensing activities, national advertising campaigns and cultivating sponsorship opportunities with major consumer brands and corporations.

Boston Scientific to pay $1.73B to Johnson & Johnson

Boston Scientific will pay its medical device rival, Johnson and Johnson’s Cordis unit $1.73 billion to settle several seven-year-old patent disputes over drug-coated stents. Stents are mesh-wire tubes used to hold open the arteries after they are surgically cleared of blockages.

This settlement resolves three patent disputes dating back to 2003 avoiding jury trials which were scheduled to begin this month.

These lawsuits had been pending in U.S. District Court in Delaware and related to several drug-coated stents, including Cordis's Cypher stent and Boston Scientific's Liberte, Taxus Liberte and Taxus Express stents.

Boston Scientific has settled 17 lawsuits with Johnson & Johnson in the past one year and still has a number of litigation matters remaining to be resolved. Boston Scientific which also makes pacemakers, defibrillators and other implants reported stent sales of $450 million in the last quarter.

Delhi HC stays askme.com functioning for copyright violation

The Delhi High Court has prevented an online portal ‘www.askme.com’ from carrying out its business following copyright infringement allegations from another portal ‘Just Dial.com’.

Justice Indermeet Kaur Kocchar of the Delhi High Court has appointed two lawyers as court commissioners to visit the Mumbai and Delhi-based offices of the portal to verify the allegations. The court commissioners were directed by the court to conduct a detailed survey of the portal offices and collect all related database and floppies to be placed before it.

The court was hearing a petition filed by the portal, ‘Just Dial.com’, which alleged that its rival portal was using its database and was violating its copyright.

Motorola patent invalidated in UK court

One of the patents included in the legal battle between Motorola and Research in Motion (RIM) has been invalidated by the UK High Court in London. The patent relates to transmission of wireless communications. This judgment will not have any direct effect on the legal tussle between the two mobile manufactures in US Courts as the practices at the US and European patent offices are not similar.

The London court deciding the case in favour of RIM, mentioned that even if the patent had been valid it hadn't been infringed by two communications systems used by the BlackBerry producers, Research in Motion. 

Motorola had made a complaint with the ITC to investigate the actions of Research in Motion and their use of Motorola patents. But none of the complaints lodged by Motorola to the US International Trade Commission have been investigated yet and with the London court ruling the case in RIM’s favour may have some impact on ITC’s decision.