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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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TOO BAD YOU CAN'T BUY a voodoo globe so that you could make the earth spin
real fast and freak everybody out.
-- Jack Handey, The New Mexican, 1988.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 12 2017, @04:20AM (3 children)
This must be some sort of USA or medical field specific topic.
What the heck is Allergan?
What the heck is Restasis?
Why would I care?
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 12 2017, @05:25AM
I came here to say the same thing. Very hard to decide whether this is top important or just complete fluff or something in between when there's zero info in the summary besides the he-said-she-said...
BOOOO
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 12 2017, @06:12AM
Since 2002, a topical emulsion of ciclosporin for treating inflammation caused by keratoconjunctivitis sicca (dry eye syndrome) has been marketed under the trade name Restasis (0.05%). [wikipedia.org]🥄
Allergan, Plc is a multi-national pharmaceutical that produces branded and generic drugs, and performs pharmaceutical research and development. It was formed on February 18, 2015, when the company formerly known as Actavis, Plc changed its name. [wikipedia.org]🥄
(Score: 2) by nobu_the_bard on Tuesday September 12 2017, @02:27PM
A pharma company found a way to make one of their patents immune to a specific legal challenge that was underway by essentially having the holder be someone totally unexpected that has special privileges. The patent is not immune to ALL legal challenges, but it does appear to apply to the specific ones they were worried about. In exchange for this protection they just have to pay an annual fee to the holder.
While the specific case is important to some people, the fact they've found a way to make their patent immune to some challenges is definitely going to matter to a lot more people in the long run. It's probably not going to stay in just the drug industry either.
This probably not what this special status was meant to be used for; nearly everyone seems to think this specific case is a blatant abuse. We'll have to see if its original intent gets completely subsumed by the new application or if laws are adjusted to correct the issue.