Insights

New York – January 27, 2022: Crowell & Moring secured a significant victory - a preliminary injunction against patent infringement through trial - on behalf of Lonza Walkersville, Inc., against Adva Biotechnology Ltd. in a case involving point-of-care cell-therapy technology.

New York – October 4, 2019: In October 2018, plaintiff Waters Corporation filed for a preliminary injunction against Crowell & Moring’s client, Agilent, for it to cease selling InstantPCTM reagent, which is used during the development of biopharmaceuticals or biologics. Oral arguments were held last December. On Friday, September 20, 2019, the District of Delaware denied Waters’ motion for a preliminary injunction. 

The Federal Circuit’s decision in University of South Florida Board of Trustees v. United States, 22-2248 (Fed. Cir. Feb. 9, 2024) hints at the broad scope of the federal government’s license rights under the Bayh-Dole Act. 

Sometimes we think we have an agreement—only to find out that we do not agree about the meaning of the agreement, and therefore have no agreement at all.  This is, of course, a common fact pattern in a contract dispute, but it is also something to look out for in the claim construction process.  An agreed claim construction is a far cry from an agreement as to the meaning of that construction as applied to the accused products.  We therefore have the counter-intuitive situation where an agreed construction becomes hotly disputed.  When this happens, it is a reminder that even when we agree on a construction that we think favors us, we should not assume that the opposing party, court, or jury will see it that way.

The USPTO recently launched the COVID-19 Prioritized Examination Pilot Program that allows small and micro entities to request prioritized examination of certain applications related to COVID-19 without paying customary fees. The pilot program went into effect on May 14, 2020 and will continue until the USPTO has accepted 500 requests.