News
- 03.10.2011 - 'Patent Trolls' Target Biotechnology Firms
The biotechnology industry has had its share of woes, but so far 'patent trolls' have not numbered among them. These companies, which profit by legally enforcing patents they own rather than developing products, may benefit from a 31 August ruling at a US federal court of appeal in Washington DC.
The court upheld a lawsuit filed by Classen Immunotherapies of Baltimore, Maryland, against four biotechnology companies and a medical group, for infringing on a patent that covered the idea of trying to link infant vaccination with later immune disorders. A district court had thrown out the lawsuit, finding that the concept at the heart of the case amounted to an abstract idea that could not be patented. The appeals court found otherwise.
Beyond its complex particulars, the case sets "a troubling precedent", says James Bessen, a lawyer at the Boston University School of Law, Massachusetts, "because you're patenting something that's very broad". (The patents include the act of reading the published scientific literature and using it to create vaccination schedules that minimize immune disorders.)
Joseph Zito?, the plaintiff's lawyer, says that his client, John Barthelow Classen, was the first researcher to connect vaccination schedules to immune disorders through animal studies. "He doesn't want to stop anybody," Zito says. "He wants to make sure people use vaccines safely." But very broad patents have posed a problem in the technology field, where some firms amass vast portfolios of patents bought up from inventors and look for targets to sue.
