In re Janssen Biotech, Inc. (Fed. Cir. 2018)

By Donald Zuhn –- Last week, the Federal Circuit affirmed the rejection by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's Patent Trial and Appeal Board of claims 1-7 of U.S. Patent No. 6,284,471 as being unpatentable under the doctrine of obviousness-type double patenting. Janssen Biotech, Inc. and New York University ("Janssen"), co-assignees of the '471 patent, argued on appeal that obviousness-type double patenting was not applicable because the safe-harbor provision of 35 U.S.C. § 121 protected the '471 patent claims. In affirming the Board's decision, however, the Federal Circuit determined that the '471 patent was not entitled to safe-harbor protections. The…Original Article