December 2013

Spotlight Info

In Sanofi-Aventis v. Pfizer Inc., No. 12-1345 (Fed. Cir. Nov. 5, 2013), the Federal Circuit affirmed the Board’s award of priority of invention to Pfizer Inc. (“Pfizer”) based on an interference count to an isolated polynucleotide cDNA encoding the human interleukin-13 receptor binding chain
(“IL-13bc”).  In affirming the Board’s award of priority to Pfizer, the Court held that, contrary to
Sanofi-Aventis’s reading of the Court’s precedent, “when ‘an inventor is unable to envision the detailed constitution of a gene’ there may nonetheless be conception and reduction to practice of the gene when the inventor is in possession of the gene and a method of preparation, i.e. ‘after the gene has been isolated,’ accompanied by knowledge of ‘other characteristics sufficient to distinguish it from other genes.’”  Slip op. at 6-7 (quoting Amgen Inc. v. Chugai Pharm. Co., 927 F.2d 1200, 1206 (Fed. Cir. 1991)).  See this month’s edition of Last Month at the Federal Circuit for a full summary of this decision.