On April 12, 1988, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued the first ever patent for a mammalian life form to Harvard scientists Philip Leder and Timothy Stewart for a genetically engineered mouse (U.S. Patent No. 4,736,866). The “Oncomouse” as it was called was altered to be highly susceptible to breast cancer (the name of […]

By a vote of 348 to 274, on March 26, 2019 the European Parliament passed a directive that requires websites to license copyrighted material posted on their websites. Each EU country now has two years to turn the directive into law. Although these laws will apply only in the EU, affected companies may choose to […]

Section 411(a) of the Copyright Act provides that a suit for copyright infringement may not be filed “until preregistration or registration of the copyright claim has been made” or “refused.” The 5th and 9th Circuits had held that an infringement lawsuit could be initiated upon filing a copyright application (the “application approach”). The 2nd, 10th, […]

On September 10th the Federal Circuit issued its ruling, 2-1, in the case of Acorda Therapeutics, Inc. v. Roxane Laboratories, Inc. upholding the judgment of the District Court of Delaware which had invalidated four of Acorda’s patents (“the Acorda Patents”) on the basis of obviousness. One of the issues on appeal was whether the district […]