Federal Circuit Affirms Intrinsic Evidence Trumps Extrinsic Evidence During Claim Construction

By Joseph M. Hallman

On October 13, 2020, in Immunex Corp. v. Sanofi-Aventis U.S. LLC, Genzyme Corp., and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc., the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (“Federal Circuit”) affirmed-in-part and dismissed-in-part an appeal from the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“PTAB”) holding that when it comes to claim construction, intrinsic evidence trumps extrinsic evidence. […]

Pioneers of Revolutionary CRISPR Gene Editing Win Chemistry’s Nobel Peace Prize

By Heidi Sease Nebel

Two scientists who pioneered the revolutionary gene-editing technology are the winners of this year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Emmanuelle Charpentier, now at the Max Planck Unit for the Science of Pathogens in Berlin, and Jennifer Doudna, at the University of California, Berkeley, were recognized for their work developing the CRISPR–Cas9 gene-editing tools. The technology allows […]

Obtaining Copyright Registrations for Blogs and Social Media Posts Just Got Easier

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Online content creators including bloggers and social media influencers are now able to take advantage of a new group copyright registration option for short online works such as blog entries, social media posts, and other short online works. The Copyright Office recently adopted the rule implementing this new group registration to help ease the burden […]

Heidi S. Nebel Appointed to the National Plant Variety Protection Board

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The U.S Department of Agriculture (USDA) has announced the appointment of Heidi S. Nebel, Intellectual Property (IP) Attorney, Managing Member, and Chair of the Biotechnology & Chemical Practice Group at McKee, Voorhees & Sease, PLC, to serve on the Plant Variety Protection (PVP) Board. According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), the PVP […]

New Grape Varieties – Raisin Awareness of Plant Patents

By Brian D. Keppler, Ph.D.

You may have noticed more options for grapes at your local grocery store in recent years. In addition to the typical red, black, and green grapes that have always been available, there are now unusual shapes and unique flavors including those grapes that that taste like cotton candy! But have you thought about how these […]

Manufacturing Day in Iowa

Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds signed a proclamation declaring October 2 as Manufacturing Day in Iowa. The first Friday of October is the annual celebration of Manufacturing Day across the country. She signed the proclamation during the Association of Business and Industry (ABI) Advanced Manufacturing Conference earlier this week. The proclamation states: Modern manufacturing is advancing […]

Known Method of Administering a Known Treatment Made by a New Process is Not Novel

By Julie L. Spieker

On September 28, 2020, in Biogen Ma Inc. v. EMD Serono, Inc, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (“Federal Circuit”) reversed a district court’s grant of judgment as a matter of law of no anticipation, reinstating a jury verdict. The claims at issue in Biogen’s patent cover the multiple sclerosis treatment Avonex […]

MVS Attorneys Successful in Fighting Institution of Inter Partes Review

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MVS is proud to announce that it was successful in fighting the institution of Inter Partes Review (IPR) for its client Putco, owner of Patent No. 9,995,473. IPR is a third-party challenge to a patent’s validity and is heard before the Patent Trial and Appeals Board (PTAB) at the United States Patent and Trademark Office […]

Practitioners Beware: Hidden MPEP Rule Change May Cause Significant Impacts to After Final Practice

By Blog Staff

With the most recent revision to the Manual of Patent Examining Procedure (MPEP) in June 2020, practitioners have noticed a subtle, but potentially significant modification to one of the MPEP sections. The relevant section pertains to a change to the first-action final rejection (FAFR) practice under 706.07(b), ultimately broadening the criteria to issue a FAFR […]

Gore-Tex Inventor Passes Away

By Kirk M. Hartung

Robert W. Gore, who invented the waterproof material called Gore-Tex, passed away on September 17, 2020.  Gore was born in 1937 in Salt Lake City, Utah.  He earned a bachelors degree in chemical engineering from the University of Delaware in 1959, and received master and PhD degrees in Chem E from the University of Minnesota […]