Patent Search and Filing

Bayer says drug infringes on patent (The Tennessean)
TRENTON, N.J. Pharmaceutical and chemical maker Bayer AG has filed a federal lawsuit alleging that drug maker Abbott Laboratories’ best-selling drug, Humira, infringes on a decade-old Bayer patent.

Warner Chilcott, Barr settle Femcon Fe patent challenge (PharmaBiz)
Warner Chilcott Limited announced that its subsidiary Warner Chilcott Company, Inc and Barr Laboratories, Inc, a subsidiary of Barr Pharmaceuticals, Inc, have entered into a settlement and license agreement to resolve the pending patent litigation involving Warner Chilcott’s oral contraceptive product, Femcon Fe.

Revenues from the Indian patent services offshoring industry are estimated at $46 m for the calendar year 2007 and are expected to reach $206 m by end 2012.

Typically catering to the international markets, patent services outsourcing to India is still in its infancy with a history of only about 3 to 4 years behind it. There are about 50 vendors in the industry with an estimated 1,550 professionals employed as of end 2007. While a few vendors have been in this business longer, this industry has gained momentum only in the last few years.

Patent services include a wide range of specific tasks or services. We have divided these services into the following broad areas: Patent searches, Patent illustration and proofreading, Patent drafting, Patent analytics, Patent asset management, Patent litigation support and Patent consulting.

Among the various functions in the patent services industry, the manpower intensive and process driven services are more easily offshored. The relatively low-value, high volume services include prior art searches, patent illustration and patent proofreading.

Large corporations are in favor of offshoring patent related (and other legal) work to India as they are the ultimate beneficiaries of the cost savings. The current addressable value of the patent services offshoring market is estimated at $2.2 b. According to Subha Kalathur, analyst and co-author of the report, “Indian vendors have significant opportunity to grow as the current addressable market is 50 times the current size of the industry. Having already established relationships with American companies and law firms, vendors also have significant opportunity in taking on work from the Patent Offices.”

According to Arun Jethmalani, CEO, ValueNotes, “The established vendors with exposure to high-value services will look to complete their array of offerings to attract more business from their existing clients. They will look to leverage end-to-end solutions.”

The report provides an in-depth analysis of the buyer market as well as the Indian vendor space along. Based on the extensive primary research and analysis, ValueNotes has identified top five vendors in this industry – Evalueserve, Pangea3, CPA Global, Lexadigm and Clairvolex.

The report is designed to help:

- Corporations, Law firms and Patent attorneys looking to outsource/offshore
- Outsourcing consultants to evaluate and compare the offerings of vendors
- Offshored patent service providers to understand the offshore opportunity as well as assess their competitive environment
- American and European corporations/law firms looking for Indian partners
- Venture capital companies looking for investment opportunities
- Researchers looking for detailed information on patent services outsourcing

The report is based on secondary data as well as extensive interviews with key people (buyers of patent services, patent attorneys and offshore patent service providers).

For more information please visit ResearchAndMarkets.com.

Worlds.com Sues NCSoft Over MMO-Patent (Slashdot)
Lulfas writes “Worlds.com today sued NCSoft over a patent filed in 2000 (granted this February) over its patent on a scalable virtual world. This is a very broad base patent, and there is no reason to expect they will only sue NCSoft, when they should be able to use the same patent against other companies. ‘Specifically, the suit claims that NCsoft has infringed on patent 7,181,690, “System and …

Acacia Subsidiary Acquires Rights to Patent for Wireless Data Technology (Centre Daily Times)
Acacia Research Corporation (Nasdaq:ACTG) announced today that its subsidiary, Acacia Patent Acquisition LLC, has acquired the rights to a patent relating to wireless data technology.

Report: Samsung Loses Patent Infringement Case in China (PC World)
Samsung has reportedly been ordered to pay 50 million yuan for patent infringement in China.

3M settles patent suit with EV Group of Austria (Minneapolis – St. Paul Business Journal)
3M Co. has settled a patent infringement lawsuit filed by an Austrian company.

Boston Scientific wins appeal over defibrillator patent (The Indianapolis Star)
INDIANAPOLIS Boston Scientific Corp.’s Guidant unit won an appeals court ruling that puts it one step closer to ending a patent dispute with St. Jude Medical over implantable defibrillators. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said Thursday that a Guidant patent is valid and ordered a trial judge to determine how much St. Jude should pay. The case has been bouncing between courts …

Lupin settles patent suit with Schering-Plough (Reuters via Yahoo! Malaysia News)
MUMBAI, Dec 17 (Reuters) – Indian drug maker Lupin Ltd said on Wednesday it had settled a patent litigation with U.S.-based Schering-Plough Corp relating to desloratadine tablets.

Physician files suit against St. Jude over patent dispute (Finance and Commerce)
A Paraguayan doctor has sued St. Paul-based St. Jude Medical and its wholly owned subsidiary, Pacesetter Inc., citing patent infringement, fraud and breach of contract.