MBHB partner Kevin Noonan, Ph.D. is a featured presenter for a Strafford webinar entitled, “Blocking Patents: Impact of Acorda Therapeutics on Obviousness Analysis,” set for 1:00-2:30 p.m. ET on January 31, 2019.
This CLE webinar will discuss the expanded doctrine of blocking patents. The panel will discuss the Acorda decision and secondary considerations. The panel will also address how the decision impacts the obviousness analyses, licensing, and invalidity/validity/opposition searches.
Description
The Federal Circuit’s recent decision in Acorda Therapeutics v. Roxane Laboratories (Sept. 10, 2018) expanded the doctrine of blocking patents. The court addressed whether a blocking patent can negate secondary considerations of non-obviousness beyond merely commercial success. The decision opens the door for generics to promote competing versions of Acorda’s name brand drug. The doctrine may also impact licensing strategies in addition to obviousness analyses.
The court reasoned that a blocking patent diminishes possible rewards for a non-owner’s or non-licensee’s investment in research aimed at an invention whose commercial exploitation would be infringing. The reduced incentives for innovation in the blocked space by non-owners and non-licensees of the blocking patent offer an alternative explanation for the patentee’s commercial success or its ability to fill a long-felt need—an explanation that has nothing to do with non-obviousness. Participants will explore the impact of a blocking patent in obviousness analyses, licensing strategies, and validity searches.
Listen as our authoritative panel discusses the Acorda decision and the expansion of the doctrine of patent blocking. The panel will address commercial success, other secondary considerations, and how the decision impacts obviousness, cross-licenses and the use of invalidity/validity/opposition searches that can help remove blocking patents.
Outline
Benefits
The panel will review these and other key issues:
