Law.com Subscribers SAVE 30%
Call 855-808-4530 or email [email protected] to receive your discount on a new subscription.
Combination Drug Patents in the Post-KSR World
Combination drug therapies play an important role in today's pharmaceutical marketplace because they can provide additional protection on therapies developed by a company and access to significant revenue streams. As an example, Advair' (GlaxoSmithKline), a combination drug containing fluticasone and salmeterol, which was covered by U.S. Patent Nos. 4,992,474, 5,126,375, and 5,225,445, earned $5.3 billion in sales in 2007.
Combination drug therapies can present unique patent issues, particularly when they employ individual drug compounds that are known in the art. In such situations, the patentee must demonstrate that the combination is not obvious over the prior art. In KSR International Co. v. Teleflex Inc., 127 S. Ct. 1727 (2007), the U.S. Supreme Court clarified the paradigm for analyzing a claim's obviousness. Since KSR, the courts have had limited review of cases involving combination drug therapies. However, the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences (“BPAI”) of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) has reviewed a number of such cases. In this article, we survey post-KSR decisions in an effort to assess what impact, if any, that Supreme Court decision may have had on the patentability/validity of combination drug therapies.
Bankruptcy Sales: Finding a Diamond In the Rough
There is no efficient market for the sale of bankruptcy assets. Inefficient markets yield a transactional drag, potentially dampening the ability of debtors and trustees to maximize value for creditors. This article identifies ways in which investors may more easily discover bankruptcy asset sales.
Judge Rules Shaquille O'Neal Will Face Securities Lawsuit for Promotion, Sale of NFTs
A federal district court in Miami, FL, has ruled that former National Basketball Association star Shaquille O'Neal will have to face a lawsuit over his promotion of unregistered securities in the form of cryptocurrency tokens and that he was a "seller" of these unregistered securities.
Why So Many Great Lawyers Stink at Business Development and What Law Firms Are Doing About It
Why is it that those who are best skilled at advocating for others are ill-equipped at advocating for their own skills and what to do about it?
Blockchain Domains: New Developments for Brand Owners
Blockchain domain names offer decentralized alternatives to traditional DNS-based domain names, promising enhanced security, privacy and censorship resistance. However, these benefits come with significant challenges, particularly for brand owners seeking to protect their trademarks in these new digital spaces.
Coverage Issues Stemming from Dry Cleaner Contamination Suits
In recent years, there has been a growing number of dry cleaners claiming to be "organic," "green," or "eco-friendly." While that may be true with respect to some, many dry cleaners continue to use a cleaning method involving the use of a solvent called perchloroethylene, commonly known as perc. And, there seems to be an increasing number of lawsuits stemming from environmental problems associated with historic dry cleaning operations utilizing this chemical.