Bristol-Myers, Ono Denied High Court Look at Inventorship Ruling

Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and Ono Pharmaceuticals Co. failed to convince the U.S. Supreme Court to review a Federal Circuit ruling that a Nobel Prize winner’s fellow researchers were properly added as co-inventors on his cancer immunotherapy patents.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit sided with Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, which argued that the researchers—Gordon Freeman and Clive R. Wood—should be listed as co-inventors with Tasuku Honjo. The lower court ruling allows Dana-Farber, Freeman’s employer, to license the patented technology, embodied in several of the newest immunotherapy drugs.

The drug companies told the Supreme Court the Federal Circuit improperly ...