The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed a
Patent Trial & Appeal Board (Board) decision that there was
insufficient written description in the asserted priority
applications to support a genus claim because of a lack of
ipsis verbis disclosure and insufficient blaze marks. The
Court concluded that the priority applications did not support an
early priority date. Regents of the University of Minnesota v.
Gilead Sciences, Inc., Case No. 21-2168 (Fed. Cir. March 6,
2023) (Lourie, Dyk, Stoll, JJ.)
Gilead filed a petition for inter partes review (IPR)
challenging Minnesota's patent directed to phosphoramidate
prodrugs preventing virus reproduction or cancerous tumor growth.
Gilead's US Food & Drug Administration-approved drug,
sofosbuvir, is marketed by Gilead to treat chronic hepatitis C
infections and falls within claim 1 of the patent.
