Invoking Yogi Berra, Gilead Ruling Requires Clear Patent Steps

Gilead Sciences Inc.'s high-profile Federal Circuit win reinforces the need for drug companies to clearly connect their years of research and development to a later patent if they wish to ensure the backward reach of their invention’s IP protections.

A three-judge panel on March 6 ruled that the University of Minnesota didn’t lay out all the choices it made between broad provisional patent applications and its narrower, later-granted patent for a Hepatitis C treatment. That meant a patent application introduced by Gilead in the interim could invalidate the university’s patent.

Patent owners must not apply former New York Yankees catcher ...