Eighteen months of darkness When an applicant files an application for a patent, the first publication generally is 18 months from that first filing date. The first date may be the filing date of the provisional application in the US or the priority filing in another country. There are a few [...]
Patent claims are where it’s at if you are looking at freedom to operate. Keep in mind, however, that it’s really issued claims that are the worry. I get a fair bit of concerns sent my way about patent applications. It comes in two flavors. Some concerns are for what is in the specification, and [...]
The regulations governing obligations related to patent filings changed in 2018. But now, almost a year later, I find that very few grant recipients are aware of the recently added obligations or even more generally, of the ones that remain the same. In a nutshell- if you get government money for research and that is [...]
When I was growing up there was a rumor that went around school: a fast food restaurant had somehow deep fried a rat instead of a chicken piece and served it to a customer. I have my doubts on the veracity of that one, but it sure spread around. A similar thing seems to have [...]
The ball drops and if we are still awake and not watching the actual event in Times Square, but a replay 3 hours later here in San Francisco, it is now 2019. Another year for new challenges, new goals and new plans. I like the clean slate of a new year. Although it can be [...]
It is not unusual for me to hear a startup inquire about a freedom-to-operate (FTO) search. Often, the requesting company is in its nascent stages. I don’t discourage the idea of keeping a good view of the competition and path to market. However, it is often too early for what I would consider a true [...]
Your first patent application – you try to think of all of the possible variations, all the possible diseases that could be diagnosed or treated, all the potential doses, all the potential chemical or protein variants. But will these lists provide sufficient support for the patent claims you seek in years to come? It might [...]
I am looking forward to Indie Bio’s demo day this week. I work with a number of the companies there. The excitement and the tension has mounted as the big day approaches. This is the day each company will have a short public presentation about its technology in front of a fairly large audience. I [...]
It may be time to have a look. Companies sign onto a lot of agreements – confidentiality, materials transfer, collaborations, contract research, contract manufacturing, clinical trials and the like. These agreements each come with obligations and restrictions. Are you keeping track? Make time for an audit Every company has its favorite template for agreements and [...]
Listening to a podcast in my ever-growing queue this week, I heard an interview with the CEO of Segment, a tech company that provides a platform for communicating data to a variety of analytic tools. The part of the story that caught my attention came before the big breakthroughs that made Segment a viable company. [...]