Other Barks & Bites for Friday, December 15: Members of Congress Criticize Big Pharma’s Patent Tactics; Authors Relaunch Copyright Infringement Lawsuit Against Meta; and the FTC Authorizes a Lawsuit Against Sanofi Alleging Potential Monopoly

Lady Luna Bella of Waterford.

This week in Other Barks & Bites: a group of authors filed a trimmed-down lawsuit against Meta accusing the company of infringing copyright to train generative AI models; the FTC authorizes a lawsuit against Sanofi accusing a potential acquisition of being a move to monopolize Pompe disease drug development; and Chinese courts publish rulings to combat malicious trademarks.

Bites

Members of Congress Criticize Big Pharma Companies After FTC Warnings

On Thursday, December 14, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Representative Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) sent letters to several pharmaceutical companies including AbbVie and AstraZeneca in the wake of Federal Trade Commission (FTC) warnings about drug manufacturers’ patent abuse. In October, the FTC sent letters to 10 pharmaceutical companies warning them that the commission intended to challenge allegedly improper patent listings in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Orange Book. In their letter, Warren and Jayapal wrote, “we have long been concerned by these and other pharmaceutical industry abuses of the patent system to stifle competition, prolong drug monopolies, and price-gouge patients.

Chinese IP Courts Release Decisions to Combat Malicious Trademark Filings

On Thursday, December 14, a Beijing court published 10 rulings to combat malicious trademarks and protect IP rights, according to state media. IP protections have long been a concern in China for both domestic and foreign IP owners, with President Xi Jinping and President Joe Biden discussing the issue at APEC. Song Yushui, Vice President of the Beijing Intellectual Property Court, said the court has “strengthened the fight against malicious registrations by improving the quality of case handling.”

Gene-editing Patent Dispute Resolved through Licensing Agreement

On Wednesday, December 13, Vertex Pharmaceuticals announced a $100 million deal for the right to Editas Medicine’s gene editing tech, marking an end to a legal dispute between the two companies about patent rights. Editas may also receive between $10 to $40 million in yearly licensing fees until the patent in question expires in 2034. The patent and agreed license covers CRISPR/Cas12a and CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing systems.

Authors Relaunch Copyright Infringement Lawsuit Against Meta

On Monday, December 11, a group of authors including Sarah Silverman and Michael Chabon filed a revised copyright infringement lawsuit against Meta accusing its large language models of using their copyrighted works to train generative AI. A previous lawsuit brought forth by the authors was dismissed by a California court, so the new lawsuit was trimmed down to focus on the social media giant’s alleged admission of using the copyright-protected books. In the lawsuit, the authors accuse Meta AI researchers of communicating about potential legal issues that might arise due to the use of copyrighted works in generative AI training. The authors wrote, “a key reason Meta chose not to share the training dataset for Llama 2 was to avoid litigation from using copyrighted materials for training that Meta had previously determined to be legally problematic.” For more see Reuters reporting.

Barks 

District Court Adopts Mylan Claim Construction in Patent Infringement Dispute    

On Wednesday, December 13, a West Virginia district court adopted in part Mylan Pharmaceutical’s claim construction in the company’s patent infringement lawsuit with Actelion. In November, the CAFC remanded the case after vacating an infringement judgment against Mylan from a lower court. The district court also denied an Actelion motion to strike several declarations submitted by Mylan as moot because the court is only relying on extrinsic evidence that the Federal Circuit expressly directed upon remand.

USPTO Announces Two New Outreach Office Locations

On Wednesday, December 13, the USPTO announced Atlanta, Georgia and Stafford County, New Hampshire as its latest outreach office locations. The Atlanta office will serve as a regional office for the Southeast Region while the New Hampshire location will serve as an outreach office for the New England region. “These new offices support the Administration’s commitment to drive economic growth and job creation by enhancing USPTO’s ability to meet people where they are and connect them with important resources to help inspire and strengthen the innovation ecosystem,” said Kathi Vidal, Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO.

WIPO Announces Final Negotiation Session for Genetic Resources IP Treaty

On Wednesday, December 13, the World Intellectual Property Office (WIPO) announced it will host the last negotiation session for a proposed IP treaty in Geneva from May 13-24. The IP treaty will cover IP related to genetic resources. “In this spirit of progress, collaboration, and energy, I look forward to WIPO’s member states moving together as one community towards a successful outcome in May next year,” said WIPO Director General Daren Tang.

FTC Accuses Sanofi Deal of Monopoly Control of Pompe Disease Drug Development

On Monday, December 11, the FTC issued an administrative complaint and authorized a lawsuit in federal court that alleges that Sanofi’s $755 million proposed acquisition of an exclusive license to Maze Therapeutic’s therapy in development for the treatment of Pompe disease would amount to monopoly control. According to the FTC, “the transaction would protect Sanofi’s monopoly and eliminate competition between Sanofi and Maze to develop new Pompe drugs, denying patients and doctors the benefits of competition, including lower prices and greater innovation.”

This Week on Wall Street

Treasury Department Identifies AI as a Potential Risk Factor in Financial System

On Thursday, December 14, the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Financial Stability Oversight Council named artificial intelligence as a vulnerability to the financial system for the first time in its 2023 annual report. According to the council, the financial sector has rapidly adopted AI due to its potential benefits. But the council wrote, “the use of AI can introduce certain risks, including safety-and-soundness risks like cyber and model risks.”

Blue Origin Announces Return Launch

On Tuesday, December 12, Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin announced its plans to launch an uncrewed mission as soon as December 18 after a 15-month pause in operations of its New Shepard suborbital rocket. The mission will carry 33 science and research payloads as well as 38,000 postcards. The former Amazon frontman’s aerospace company made a splash in 2021 when it launched its first crewed flight with founder Bezos on board as part of the New Shephard program.

 Quarterly Earnings – The following firms identified among the IPO’s Top 300 Patent Recipients for 2022 are announcing quarterly earnings next week (2022 rank in parentheses):

• Monday: None
• Tuesday: Accenture (177)
• Wednesday: Micron Technology (17)
• Thursday: Nike (11)
• Friday: None