On June 21, 2024, Law360 reported on amicus briefs filed in support of a petition for writ of certiorari filed by Cellect LLC to the U.S. Supreme Court seeking review of a decision by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirming the invalidity of Cellect’s patents due to “obviousness type double patenting.” The Federal Circuit’s decision received widespread attention because it held for the first time that a statutorily mandated award of a Patent Term Adjustment (PTA) could result in the invalidity of the patent for double patenting if the PTA caused the patent to expire later than related patents claiming variants of the same invention.
Venable attorneys David Barr and Damien Dombrowski filed an amicus brief on behalf of biopharmaceutical companies Sanofi, BeiGene, Ltd., Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC, EMD Serono, Inc. and Pfizer Inc. in support of the grant of certiorari. Other companies, industry groups, and bar associations also filed amicus briefs urging the Supreme Court to take up the case.