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Federal Circuit Urged in Amicus to Protect Patent Rights of Biotech Innovators


1 minute read | May.15.2024

  • Orrick life sciences partner Irena Royzman, along with Zachary Ferguson of Kramer Levin, has filed an amicus in a patent dispute with major implications for biotechnology companies.
  • The amicus brief, filed last week on behalf of the American Intellectual Property Law Association, urged the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to overturn a lower court decision that, if upheld, “will unravel the field of biotechnology and stifle future innovation.”
  • The Federal Circuit is reviewing the appeal of a Delaware judge’s decision in January dismissing a patent case brought by biotech company Regenxbio and the University of Pennsylvania against Sarepta Therapeutics. The judge found that the patent on a gene therapy treatment Sarepta was accused of infringing was invalid.
  • AIPLA’s amicus brief argues that the court’s decision conflicts with more than four decades of U.S. Supreme Court precedent enabling biotech innovators to obtain patent protection for new inventions derived from components taken from nature. The lower court, the brief argues, created new requirements for patent eligibility under Section 101 that would put U.S. biotech innovators at a competitive disadvantage against foreign competitors and “hamper domestic biotech innovation.”