Comments for Biotechnology Patent Law Blog | Patents4Life by Warren Woessner http://www.patents4life.com Thu, 16 May 2013 16:33:37 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.2 Comment on Supreme Court Decides Bowman v. Monsanto for Monsanto by EG http://www.patents4life.com/2013/05/supreme-court-decides-bowman-v-monsanto-for-monsanto/#comment-25402 EG Thu, 16 May 2013 16:33:37 +0000 http://www.patents4life.com/?p=2818#comment-25402 Hey Warren, No Quanta of solace for Farmer Bowman, eh? Hey Warren,

No Quanta of solace for Farmer Bowman, eh?

]]> Comment on Patents4Life is Four Years Old by EG http://www.patents4life.com/2013/03/patents4life-is-four-years-old/#comment-21777 EG Tue, 26 Mar 2013 19:46:03 +0000 http://www.patents4life.com/?p=2710#comment-21777 "the Supreme Court’s continuous involvement in rejecting what it sees as overly rigid tests developed by the Fed. Cir. has led to as much uncertainty in 35 USC as I have experienced in my more than 30 year career in this increasingly abstract, if not metaphysical area of “philosophical inquiry” (as Justice Story might put it – even today)." Warren, That is truly an "understatement." Definitely the most "uncertainty" I've seen in my almost 36 year career. “the Supreme Court’s continuous involvement in rejecting what it sees as overly rigid tests developed by the Fed. Cir. has led to as much uncertainty in 35 USC as I have experienced in my more than 30 year career in this increasingly abstract, if not metaphysical area of “philosophical inquiry” (as Justice Story might put it – even today).”

Warren,

That is truly an “understatement.” Definitely the most “uncertainty” I’ve seen in my almost 36 year career.

]]> Comment on Landmark Australian case finds genes still patentable in Australia by EG http://www.patents4life.com/2013/02/landmark-australian-case-finds-genes-still-patentable-in-australia/#comment-20156 EG Tue, 19 Feb 2013 09:58:02 +0000 http://www.patents4life.com/?p=2622#comment-20156 Warren, Let's hope SCOTUS doesn't pull a "Harvard mouse" like the Canadian Supreme Court did! Warren,

Let’s hope SCOTUS doesn’t pull a “Harvard mouse” like the Canadian Supreme Court did!

]]> Comment on Time For Myriad To Fight Another Day by Moocow http://www.patents4life.com/2013/02/time-for-myriad-to-fight-another-day/#comment-19977 Moocow Tue, 05 Feb 2013 17:00:22 +0000 http://www.patents4life.com/?p=2589#comment-19977 Warren, you're correct that Judge Bryson walked into the kidney trap. That's because the way these claims are written makes one believe that "isolation" is the patentee's only "inventive contribution." It's this fiction that "all the patentee did was to take the gene from the body and put it in a vial, where it can then be 'looked at.'" Nothing, of course, could be further from reality. Cloning or sequencing a gene has nothing to do with isolating it. It's just not a process of extraction and purification - and nobody takes a blood sample and distils drops of pure BRCA gene from it. Yet that's what happened at oral argument in the Federal Circuit, where Myriad's lawyer was trapped into defending "isolation" as something very sophisticated, saying that Myriad's inventive contribution was to figure out "where, exactly, to cut it" out of the chromosome. And then Judge Bryson goes: "but if a surgeon similarly figures out how exactly to cut out a kidney..." I think that clinched it for him, and it's sad that he never understood that "isolation" is completely irrelevant to the scientific and inventive merits of these claims. It would have been much better to compare 'cloned' genes to 'cloned' kidneys. Alas, it's too late, and we can have no confidence whatsoever that the Supreme Court will discern anything - other than what it wants to hear - in the cacophony of misinformation and hyperbole that's on file with them now. In order to decide this case in the ACLU's favor, the Supreme Court would have to make an astounding number of assumptions and accept lots of unproven facts. Nonetheless, I think there's a real risk that they could do just that. Warren,
you’re correct that Judge Bryson walked into the kidney trap. That’s because the way these claims are written makes one believe that “isolation” is the patentee’s only “inventive contribution.” It’s this fiction that “all the patentee did was to take the gene from the body and put it in a vial, where it can then be ‘looked at.’” Nothing, of course, could be further from reality. Cloning or sequencing a gene has nothing to do with isolating it. It’s just not a process of extraction and purification – and nobody takes a blood sample and distils drops of pure BRCA gene from it.
Yet that’s what happened at oral argument in the Federal Circuit, where Myriad’s lawyer was trapped into defending “isolation” as something very sophisticated, saying that Myriad’s inventive contribution was to figure out “where, exactly, to cut it” out of the chromosome. And then Judge Bryson goes: “but if a surgeon similarly figures out how exactly to cut out a kidney…” I think that clinched it for him, and it’s sad that he never understood that “isolation” is completely irrelevant to the scientific and inventive merits of these claims.
It would have been much better to compare ‘cloned’ genes to ‘cloned’ kidneys. Alas, it’s too late, and we can have no confidence whatsoever that the Supreme Court will discern anything – other than what it wants to hear – in the cacophony of misinformation and hyperbole that’s on file with them now. In order to decide this case in the ACLU’s favor, the Supreme Court would have to make an astounding number of assumptions and accept lots of unproven facts. Nonetheless, I think there’s a real risk that they could do just that.

]]> Comment on Time For Myriad To Fight Another Day by carolin shining http://www.patents4life.com/2013/02/time-for-myriad-to-fight-another-day/#comment-19976 carolin shining Tue, 05 Feb 2013 16:56:43 +0000 http://www.patents4life.com/?p=2589#comment-19976 Ditto. Excellent analysis. Sad that nothing has changed public opinion in the last 40 years. Ditto.

Excellent analysis. Sad that nothing has changed public opinion in the last 40 years.

]]> Comment on ACLU Files Petitioners’ Brief in AMP v. Myriad Appeal by EG http://www.patents4life.com/2013/01/aclu-files-petitioners-brief-in-amp-v-myriad-appeal/#comment-19882 EG Mon, 28 Jan 2013 16:24:04 +0000 http://www.patents4life.com/?p=2579#comment-19882 Warren, Just more of the same rhetorical and disingenuous nonsense from the ACLU/PubPat. They should be "hoisted on the petard" of their brief. Warren,

Just more of the same rhetorical and disingenuous nonsense from the ACLU/PubPat. They should be “hoisted on the petard” of their brief.

]]> Comment on USPTO Publishes Final Rules for Micro-Entity Status and Fee Schedule by EG http://www.patents4life.com/2013/01/uspto-publishes-final-rules-for-micro-entity-status-and-fee-schedule/#comment-19714 EG Tue, 22 Jan 2013 10:23:42 +0000 http://www.patents4life.com/?p=2569#comment-19714 Warren, Nice pick up on the distinction between the university and its not-for-profit research foundation. This distinction is going to cause "groans" in the not-for-profit research community. Or as I would call it, the AIA (Abominable Inane Act) strikes again! Warren,

Nice pick up on the distinction between the university and its not-for-profit research foundation. This distinction is going to cause “groans” in the not-for-profit research community. Or as I would call it, the AIA (Abominable Inane Act) strikes again!

]]> Comment on Top Ten Biotech IP Stories of 2012 by EG http://www.patents4life.com/2012/12/top-ten-biotech-ip-stories-of-2012/#comment-19400 EG Mon, 07 Jan 2013 13:10:12 +0000 http://www.patents4life.com/?p=2516#comment-19400 Warren, I really like how you describe WDR ("Make it or fake it"). Just like my 4 C's of Paradigms: they must created, they must be challenged, and they must be confirmed (if still true) or changed (if no longer true). Warren,

I really like how you describe WDR (“Make it or fake it”). Just like my 4 C’s of Paradigms: they must created, they must be challenged, and they must be confirmed (if still true) or changed (if no longer true).

]]> Comment on Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Conference on Patenting in the Life Sciences by Joyce Morrison http://www.patents4life.com/2013/01/cold-spring-harbor-laboratory-conference-on-patenting-in-the-life-sciences/#comment-19321 Joyce Morrison Fri, 04 Jan 2013 21:35:29 +0000 http://www.patents4life.com/?p=2527#comment-19321 Dear Warren, Very punny on "Myriad". Dear Warren,

Very punny on “Myriad”.

]]> Comment on Top Ten Biotech IP Stories of 2012 by Ruben D Flores-Saaib http://www.patents4life.com/2012/12/top-ten-biotech-ip-stories-of-2012/#comment-19151 Ruben D Flores-Saaib Sat, 29 Dec 2012 02:02:08 +0000 http://www.patents4life.com/?p=2516#comment-19151 Dear Warren, Thank you very much for keeping this very useful post going. Happy 2013. I look forward to continuing reading the very interesting stories from you. Sincerely, -Ruben Dario Dear Warren,

Thank you very much for keeping this very useful post going. Happy 2013. I look forward to continuing reading the very interesting stories from you.

Sincerely,

-Ruben Dario

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