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Dr. Jonathan Schuchardt, Partner at Dilworth IP, will be presenting a series of talks on the basics of patent law for the Bioscience Center, an incubator, accelerator and centralized resource center for biotechnology in New Mexico. The first talk, Patent Mythology: Common Misconceptions about Patents, will be held on Tuesday, January 10th; the second, Effective Invention Disclosures, on Tuesday, January 24th; and the third, How to Read a Patent, will be held on Tuesday, February 7th. The entire series will take place at FatPipe ABQ in Albuquerque, NM from 11:30 AM to 1:00 PM (MST), and will be open to the public.

Dr. Anthony Sabatelli, Partner and Chair of Dilworth IP’s Biotech and Pharmaceutical IP practice group, has been appointed to serve on CURE’s Board of Directors. CURE (Connecticut United for Research Excellence) serves as the bioscience cluster for the state, and is a diverse community of small and large life and healthcare sciences companies, ranging in scope from therapeutics, to healthcare technology, to medical devices. Universities, government agencies, scientists, educators, mentors, students, entrepreneurs, business experts, service providers and investors further form the breadth of the network. Regarding his appointment, Dr. Sabatelli said that “I am honored to serve CURE in this capacity because it is an important advocate for the state’s bioscience community.”

Dilworth IP was recently selected to organize a two-day symposium on trademark and brand protection for a group of fourteen delegates from the Trademark Division of the State Administration for Industry & Commerce (SAIC) of the People’s Republic of China. Michael Dilworth, founder of Dilworth IP, moderated the event with assistance from the firm’s Technology Specialist, Jing Zhou. Frederick Spaeth, who chairs the firm’s trademark practice, contributed a presentation on US trademark law and best practices. Other speakers included Paul Pita of The Pita Group, Harry Falber of Trade Area Marketing Group and Paul Edelberg of Fox Rothschild LLP. Dr. Shenmin Yin of Beyond Attorneys at Law served as the Chinese translator for the event, and Lora Feng and Ting Yi of LFI Solutions served as co-organizers.

This is an article in a review of patents issued in 2016 in the area of Fluid Catalytic Cracking (FCC). The summary below covers a single patent relating to FCC catalyst additives; specifically a gasoline sulfur reduction additive. Last year, when we were reviewing catalyst additive patents for 2015, there were only five: two related to gasoline sulfur reduction catalysts; two related to metals deactivators/traps; and a ZSM-5 additive patent. At that time, because of the low numbers of patents it was an open question whether there would be a resurgence in these areas. The answer appears to be that FCC research in additives, at least that for which IP protection is being sought, continues to be low. Research seems to be shifting more to processes and equipment, and maintaining a position in catalysts. All of these will be covered in forthcoming articles.

According to the Allied Market Research report, the global market for quantum dots will grow from about $300 million to over $5 billion dollars in the period from 2013-2020 period. So, what exactly is a quantum dot and how are they useful?

In 1988, the term “quantum dot” (or “QD” for short) was introduced by Dr. Mark Reed at Yale University to describe nanocrystalline semiconducting fluorophores. Fluorophores are chemical materials that re-emit light when excited by a light pulse. QDs are usually core-shell systems with a semiconductor core enclosed within a shell of another semiconductor material. They usually have confined diameters in the range of 2-20 nanometers (a nanometer is 1 x 10-9 meters) in all three spatial dimensions, resulting in size quantization effects. This size quantization means the band gap (the electron and hole excitation energy levels) of the QD can be “tuned” to provide different light emission frequencies by changing the composition of the QDs and varying their diameters. For example, the larger the QD, the redder, i.e.the lower the energy, emission. Researchers have utilized QDs as efficient materials for advanced photoelectric devices and solar cells. Dr. Arthur Nozik is one of the great leaders in this field (US 4,634,641). During his tenure at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), he led a research group to discover variant semiconductor QDs for novel optical and energy systems (US 8,685,781 and US 9,324,562 ). Additionally the surfaces of QDs can be conjugated to various molecules to vary their physical properties, for example, to increase water solubility, reduce cytotoxicity, and resist reactive oxygen formation. The QDs can also be conjugated with specific molecules to target tumor biomarkers. These unique physical properties and the surface chemical modification of QDs have attracted increasing attention to applications in bio-imaging (reviewed in Part VI), bio-analytical assays and diagnostics, as well as the development of new therapeutic agents.

A contentious patent battle has continued to rage between the Broad Institute at Harvard/MIT and the University of California (UC). UC is challenging 13 patents related to CRISPR gene editing technology that are currently held by the Broad Institute. The basis of the challenge lies in explaining the potential influence that the work of Jennifer Doudna (UC Berkeley) and Emanuelle Charpentier (then at Umeå University) had on Feng Zhang’s (Broad Institute) later work, and whether his work was an obvious development beyond that of Doudna/ Charpentier, or whether it has the earliest priority claim. Although the patent battle remains active with an uncertain outcome, Doudna, Charpentier, and Zhang remain key players with regards to both the patents and research advances/ startup companies related to the technology.

Given that the majority of the human microbiome is found in the gut, it is not surprising that most microbiome-based therapeutic approaches have been used to treat gastrointestinal disorders, such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and Clostridium difficile infections. However, growing evidence suggests that targeting the microbiome can have broader therapeutic implications, demonstrating the ever-evolving nature of the microbiome field. Specifically, microbiome modulators could be used to either enhance or suppress the immune response and would thus be considered immunotherapy. Part VIII of this Series reviewed how altering the microbiome could be used in combination with checkpoint blockade. As a continuation to Part VIII, this article will explore how microbiome modulators could be used as single agent immunotherapy to treat autoimmune disease, inflammatory disease, and cancer. Bolded patent documents are further summarized in the table at the end of this ins

On November 2, 2016, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued an important and forward-looking memo on Recent Subject Matter Eligibility Decisions for patent applications that offered guidance for drafting claims that may have previously been rendered ineligible under the two-step Alice test for determining patent eligibility. The USPTO signaled that this is a further step in a longer and more detailed conversation on patent subject matter eligibility (SME) that will continue in the near future. We expect this conversation to inform areas ranging from software and computer-implemented inventions to biotechnology.

Dr. Anthony Sabatelli of Dilworth IP will be presenting a talk at the University of Hartford entitled “Intellectual Property Basics for Entrepreneurs.” The event will be hosted by the University’s Computer Science Department on Thursday, November 17th from 12:15 to 1:15 pm in Dana Hall Room 318. In this informal, yet informative presentation, Dr. Sabatelli will cover basic topics of patent law of interest to both students and entrepreneurs. These topics will include: patentability, freedom-to-practice, subject matter eligibility (particularly for software and biotech developments), and a timeline of key patenting events.

Dr. Anthony Sabatelli of Dilworth IP will be presenting a talk on intellectual property basics at The Quinnipiac University Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (QUCIE) in its new location at the School of Business. The event will be held on Tuesday, November 15th from 4:00 to 5:00 pm. Dr. Sabatelli will cover topics of patent law of interest to both students and entrepreneurs. These topics will include: patentability, freedom-to-practice, subject matter eligibility (particularly for software and biotech developments), and a timeline of key patenting events.