English
Stacking the Deck Against Viagra
Two weeks ago, it was widely reported that the BPAI upheld the reexamination rejection of the broadest claim of Pfizer’s US Patent 6,469,012 relating to Viagra®. Lost in the outrage over the 7 year pendency of the reexamination proceedings was the degree to which the Pharma industry stacked the deck against Pfizer, and how special dispatch seemingly ends at appeal.
The reexamination of the ‘012 patent was kicked off by the USPTO in 2003, identifying four substantial new questions of patentability (SNQs). It is worth noting that in 2003, there was no such thing as a Central Reexamination Unit (CRU). Instead, this patent reexamination went to the patent examining corps. As most practitioners are aware, while the patent examining corps certainly has the technical expertise to handle such issues, special dispatch was far from assured. This deficiency, in part, led to the creation of the CRU in 2005. The CRU implemented a coordinated management of the USPTO’s reexamination caseload, and staffed reexamination proceedings with teams of three experienced primary examiners.
In addition to the initiation of the Viagra® reexamination in this period of USPTO transition, the Pharma industry implemented a strategy of Read the rest of this entry »
