Worries about patent scrutiny

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is rejecting numerous biotechnology patent applications that fail to prove utility with data from animal or human trials, according to members of the American Intellectual Property Law Association Biotechnology Committee.

"Within the last two months the Patent Office has issued hundreds, if not thousands, of rejections in the chemical and biotechnology areas" because they were not supported by clinical trials, Albert Halluin, an attorney with Limbach & Limbach in San Francisco told BioCentury. The rejections started late last year, said Halluin, who formerly was vice president and chief patent counsel at Cetus Corp...