Bu Yin

In the landmark Amgen v. Sanofi case (previously covered here), the Supreme Court affirmed that patent claims drawn to a genus of monoclonal antibodies, which were claimed in terms of their function and the epitope to which they bind, were invalid due to a lack of enablement. This case and other Federal Circuit decisions, including Baxalta v. Genentech and AbbVie v.

In the November 20, 2024 Federal Register Notice, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO or the “Office”) released its final rule on patent fee adjustments (“Final Rule”). These fee adjustments, set to take effect on January 19, 2025, aim to promote efficient patent prosecution practices while also generating sufficient revenue to recover the Office’s patent operational costs.

Ascertaining the differences between prior art and claims at issue requires interpreting the claim language and considering both the invention and the prior art references as a whole.1 The Supreme Court emphasized "the need for caution in granting a patent based on the combination of elements found in the prior art"2 and discussed circumstances in which a patent might be determined to be obvious.