How can a recent Federal Circuit opinion on the on-sale bar, that appears to maintain the status quo, all the same be causing anxiety in the minds of some in-house counsel? This webinar will explore the ramifications of the April decision Helsinn v. Teva, that reversed a lower court by holding that the 2011 America Invents Act on-sale bar provision renders patents invalid if the invention was sold prior to patenting, even if the sale did not publicly disclose the invention.
Helsinn appears to be consistent with a long line of cases about secret sales, including Metallizing. But some in-house counsel, particularly in pharma and other regulated industries, are concerned about the facts of the case, in which the public disclosure of a private purchase-and-supply agreement between Helsinn and a third-party distributor was found invalidating. They worry that many contracts regularly inked by their in-house clients prior to filing a patent application will now need the added scrutiny of IP counsel. And if such transactions are known by the prosecuting patent attorney, will they have to be disclosed to the USPTO?
Our panel includes an in-house counsel at a global chemical company, a pharmaceutical industry litigator, and a professor of patent law.
Speakers:
- Prof. Dennis Crouch, University of Missouri School of Law
- Deborah Fishman, Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP
- Jennifer Johnson, DuPont
