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Allergan Pulls a Fast One

posted by Fnord666 on Monday September 11 2017, @10:41PM   Printer-friendly
from the clever-lawyers dept.

Snotnose writes:

Dr. Lowe has scary patent news. Allergan's patent on Restasis is being questioned in court.

Last December, the US Patent Office granted an inter partes review of the relevant patents, a decision that did not go down well with Allergan or its investors. That form of patent review has been around since 2011 and the America Invents Act, and its purpose is specifically for prior art objections to a granted patent.

Looks bad for Allergan, but then they got sneaky. They transferred the patent rights to St. Regis Mohawk Indian Nation. Why? The Indian Nation is a sovereign nation, and our patent laws don't apply to them.

Scary stuff.

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  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by Arik on Tuesday September 12 2017, @12:51AM (2 children)

    by Arik (4543) on Tuesday September 12 2017, @12:51AM (#566489) Journal
    I suspect you're wrong on that. The status of original nations in the US is not so clear cut. The US courts, in fact, created a new status for them as 'domestic nations' in order to reconcile the various promises that were made to respect their territory and sovereignty with the political reality that we were never going to do anything of the kind, and it's a very complicated legal subject that I'm certainly no expert in. In general, they're hybrid entities, in some ways treated as dependencies or vassals of the federal government, in other ways as sovereigns in their own right.

    Both the drug companies and the Mohawk nation have lawyers and they all appear to believe this is a winning move, so I'm inclined to suspect they may have a better idea of the controlling precedents than you do.
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  • (Score: 2) by tfried on Tuesday September 12 2017, @07:18AM

    by tfried (5534) on Tuesday September 12 2017, @07:18AM (#566579)

    Both the drug companies and the Mohawk nation have lawyers and they all appear to believe this is a winning move, so I'm inclined to suspect they may have a better idea of the controlling precedents than you do.

    I am very much not a lawyer, but I would be very much surprised, if that move will actually "win" in the legal sense, in the long run. For starters, whatever their convictions, otherwise, I'm pretty sure court judges will hold a strong believe that the legal system must have a say (one way or the other) over legal matters. So convincing them otherwise is going to be an uphill battle by all means.

    That said, the legal situation does look messy, indeed, and it seems entirely plausible that it could take years to sort out. And a delay is all Allergan needs. They apparently do think it likely that their patent will not hold up to review, but any day the patent is not yet voided nets Allergan more profits.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 12 2017, @12:09PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 12 2017, @12:09PM (#566699)

    Both the drug companies and the Mohawk nation have lawyers and they all appear to believe this is a winning move

    I agree, this is a winning move for both counsels. For their clients, it doesn't change a thing (I hope).