Cases Update: International roundup of recently filed cases and noteworthy rulings

摘要

In this ruling, the Federal Circuit affirmed the US Patent and Trademark Office's (USPTO's) decision that Pfizer was entitled to an earlier priority date for a claim to cDNA encoding the IL-13 receptor protein. The Board agreed with Pfizer that the question is "who first had in hand the actual isolated DNA of the count and appreciated its IL-13 bc function", not "the date each party first knew the complete sequence" of nu-cleotides as argued by Sanofi-Aventis. Sanofi was awarded priority with its December 6,1995 priority date because Pfizer's filing date was March 1,1996. Pfizer presented evidence that it had isolated and identified the cDNA before Sanofi's priority date, but not the complete sequence because of sequencing errors. The Board concluded that Pfizer had "the claimed polynucleotide in hand with some additional identifying information including at least a partial sequence',''and that Pfizer "established conception and actual reduction to practice of a polynucleotide within the scope of count 3" before Sanofi's priority date. Sanofi argued that until Pfizer had the correct sequence, "neither conception nor reduction to practice could occur." Pfizer argued that errors such as these were "routinely detected and corrected" and were actually corrected by December 12, 1995. The Federal Circuit panel affirmed the Board s decision.