Unpredictability factor narrows biotech patents; courts have held biotechnology inventions nonenabled when results are deemed unreliable
Article Abstract:
Enablement presents a difficult issue in biotechnology patent law, and in several 1990s rulings the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has relied on unpredictability to rule various biotechnology inventions nonenabled. In re Vaeck, In re Goodman, and Amgen, Inc. v. Chugai Pharmaceutical Co. are examples. The enabling disclosure requirement will limit the scope of patent claims permissible in an industry as unpredictable as biotechnology, and the challenge for companies is the management of research and development with the still-developing enablement law.
Publication Name: The National Law Journal
Subject: Law
ISSN: 0162-7325
Year: 1997
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E.U., U.S. favor flora inventions; tribunals on both sides of the Atlantic uphold patents with claims directed to plants
Article Abstract:
The position taken by the United States and the European Union on the patenting of transgenic plants is compared. The ruling by the Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office in Novartis II/Transgenic Plant and by the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc. v. J.E.M. Ag Supply, Inc. speak to this issue and are discussed at some length
Publication Name: The National Law Journal
Subject: Law
ISSN: 0162-7325
Year: 2000
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A new concept of 'conception;' Federal Circuit blurs distinction between idea for an invention and its reduction to practice
Article Abstract:
The Federal Circuit's ruling in Hitzeman v. Rutter regarding which inventor obtains a patent when there are two or more in competition is discussed.
Publication Name: The National Law Journal
Subject: Law
ISSN: 0162-7325
Year: 2001
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