BioCentury
ARTICLE | Politics & Policy

Senators seek to end sovereign immunity in patent cases

March 8, 2018 11:13 PM UTC

A bipartisan group of senators introduced a bill Wednesday to prevent the use of sovereign immunity claims to skirt patent challenge reviews. The bill follows an appeal filed by Saint Regis Mohawk tribe and Allergan plc (NYSE:AGN) in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) contesting a decision from the Patent Trial and Appeal Board to deny dismissal of an inter partes review challenging Allergan's patents on the basis of sovereign immunity.

The Preserving Access to Cost Effective Drugs (PACED) Act would amend U.S. patent law to provide that a patent owner, including Indian tribes and foreign states, may not assert sovereign immunity as a defense in patent challenge actions before PTAB, including IPRs, or in appeals of PTAB decisions. ...