Merck has agreed to pay up to $400 million to acquire IOmet Pharma, a Scottish company that specializes in the development of small molecule-based cancer treatments.
IOmet will operate as a division of Merck. The acquisition will include IOmet’s pre-clinical pipeline of IDO (indoleamine-2,3-dioxygenase 1), TDO (tryptophan-2,3-dioxygenase), and dual-acting IDO/TDO inhibitors.
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According to the most recent update from the USPTO (@ 5:55pm yesterday), the USPTO expects service to be out at least through tomorrow, 25 December 2015. From our perspective, realistically, we think this means that the systems will be unavailable through the weekend.
In light of this emergency situation, the USPTO will consider each day from Tuesday, December 22, 2015, through Thursday, December 24, 2015, to be a “Federal holiday within the District of Columbia” in accordance with the description and regulations in this official notice posted here: http://www.uspto.gov/blog/ebiz/.
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The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has ruled that the name of an Asian-American band — The Slants — is private speech and therefore protected by the First Amendment. The government, the court writes, has no business trying to regulate it by denying the band a trademark.
At issue in the case was Section 2(a) of the Lanham Act, which allows the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) to deny or cancel a trademark if it is “disparaging” of persons, institutions or national symbols.
In a 10-2 decision, the court decided parts of that section were unconstitutional. Conferring a trademark, the court argues, does not make the band’s name government speech:
The PTO’s processing of trademark registrations no more transforms private speech into government speech than when the government issues permits for street parades, copyright registration certificates, or, for that matter, grants medical, hunting, fishing, or drivers licenses, or records property titles, birth certificates, or articles of incorporation.
Very interesting result. What are the implications for the REDSKINS trademark?
The Court’s opinion may be read here.
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It seems the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office’s Trademark Electronic Search System (“TESS”) is unavailable at this time.
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Drug giant GlaxoSmithKline has reached a deal to acquire Bristol-Myers Squibb’s HIV portfolio.
GSK will pay $350 million up front and could pay an additional $1 billion depending on developmental and sales milestones.
GSK did the deal through its subsidiary ViiV Healthcare, a HIV specialty company established by GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer in 2009.
It is actually two separate deals — one to buy BMS’s late-stage HIV assets and another to buy assets earlier in the developmental pipeline. The deals should close independently during the first half of 2016.
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Social media sites generate revenue with targeted advertising, based on personal information. As such, they encourage registered users to provide as much information as possible. With limited government oversight, industry standards or incentives to educate users on security, privacy and identity protection, users are exposed to identity theft and fraud. Additionally, these platforms have a ton of confidential user information, and are likely vulnerable to outside (or inside) attack. On the marketing front, Google recently patented an algorithm to rate individual’s influence within social media. Once publicized, it will likely encourage greater participation by active users in order to boost their influence score.
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Changes to UK copyright law will soon mean that you may need to take out a licence to photograph classic designer objects even if you own them…
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On 29 October 2015, OHIM’s Opposition Division of the Office dismissed Bayer’s opposition against registration of the mark SALOSPIR & Design (No. 012351458).
Bayer opposed Uni-Pharma SA’s application for the mark SALOSPIR & Design for pharmaceutical preparations in Class 5 based on three prior national registrations of ASPIRIN (with and without designs).
In dismissing the opposition, the Opposition Division, assuming that the earlier marks have a reputation for pharmaceuticals and related products, found that, although the marks are similar to a certain extent (in particular taking into account that they all include the letters “S-P-I-R”), they had significant differences and, because of these differences, the public was unlikely to make a mental connection between the marks in dispute. In particular, the Opposition Division stressed that the marks differed in their initial letters, on which consumers tend to focus, and also in their figurative elements.
Further, these colors in the marks are of limited distinctiveness because they are either functional (white) or commonly used in the relevant field (green), so that they have extremely low distinctive character in connection with pharmaceuticals and, therefore, no likelihood of confusion or dilution could be established.
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It seems that Thomson Reuters is shopping its IP business, which claims in excess of $1 billion of annual sales.
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Darren Geliebter
Mathew Lombard
THE PRINCIPAL REGISTER 