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« Court Report | Main | Why Does Myriad Think It Can Win BRCA Gene Lawsuits? »

July 29, 2013

Comments

Patent Expiry of U.S. Patent No. 5,800,808 is mentioned as "(twenty years from date of issuance, or Sept. 1, 2018".

According to my understanding it should be "(seventeen years from date of issuance, or Sept. 1, 2015".

Dear Manisha,

Thank you for catching that mistake. Of course, you are correct, it should be seventeen years from the date of issuance (and we will try to correct the original post). However, the original point is still the same – the ‘808 patent has a later expiration date than the other patents at issue. Oddly, the Federal Circuit glossed over this fact, only looking to the Orange Book for patent expiration information. In fact, during oral argument, the Court seemed to be confused by the fact that there could be non-Orange Book listed patents in suit. The result should be a shortening of the injunction because of the invalidation of the ‘808 patent.

Thank you again for catching that mistake.

Andrew

Although this is somewhat off topic, I wanted to ask: do federal district courts sometimes use neutral expert witnesses, to clarify scientific, or otherwise technical issues for the jury?
In a fairly recent debate about patents, between Judge R. Posner and Professor R. Epstein, Judge Posner said that he likes using neutral witnesses when he volunteers as a judge in patent cases, at the district court level, because they are less "coached" by their lawyers and are therefore more honest and straight-forward in volunteering their technical expertise.
Is this practice picking up some steam, or do courts remain generally conservative in this regard and maintain a robust adversarial legal structure?

Igor Faynshteyn, Esq.

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