Alston & Bird sponsored this upcoming conference hosted by BIO. In addition, Deepro Mukurjee, Murray Spruill and Madison Jellins were featured speakers at the conference.
Deepro Mukurjee presented "Living on Borrowed Time: Adjustment, Extension, and Supplementary Protection of Patent Term" on April 21, 10:00am - 11:00am. Deepro's panel discussed the basics of patent term extension and address several current issues. Topics discussed included the following.
- Patent term adjustment for USPTO delays under Section 154 and the status of Wyeth v. Kappos and related litigation
- Limitations and uncertainties about patent term extension for regulatory delays under Section 156
- Whether a patent extended under Section 156 would be infringed by a biosimilar competing product
- A primer on Supplementary Protection Certificates under European law.
Murray Spruill presented "Patenting Polynucleotides and Polypeptides" on April 21, 11:15am - 12:00. After In re Kubin, there has been an increase in obviousness rejections relating to nucleotide and polypeptide sequences. Additionally, the industry faces continuing written description rejections. This session discussed these issues and focus on Examiner guidelines for patentability for nucleotide and polypeptide sequences.
Madison Jellins moderated "Case Law Updates from the U.S. and Around the World" on April 21, 12:15pm - 2:00pm. Her panel provided an overview of recent domestic and international case law developments, including general updates from international places of interest such as Europe and China. The panel discussed recent U.S. case law developments, including Ariad Pharmaceuticals, Inc. v. Eli Lilly (written description), i4i v. Microsoft (damages), Bilski v. Doll (machine or transformation test of patent eligibility) and Association for Molecular Pathology v. USPTO (gene patenting), and how these cases may impact the biotechnology industry.
April 19-21, 2010
Ritz-Carlton Hotel / New Orleans, LA