Competition, filing patents

Biscyclopentadienyl (bis-Cp) metal complexes were not the only single-site catalysts for olefin polymerization. Monocyclopentadienyl complexes often showed activity, but generally were not competitive catalysts except when linked to a bulky amido group. Thus, Bercaw s CpSiNR ligand was placed on titanium by workers at Dow and Exxon and found to produce very active catalysts with attractive features (Figure 15). Both companies filed patents in the US and... 

The FDA has generally resolved the issues raised by the citizen petitions that brand-name companies file about drug products in this study in a timely manner, and in most instances prior to a distriet eourt ruling on the merits of the patent infringement litigation. Thus, for drug products in the study, eitizen petitions that have been answered by the FDA have not delayed generic competition. 

In some circumstances a patentee may obtain a seeond patent that is obvious in view of its own earlier patent. The Patent Offiee typically allows a patent applieant to obtain sueh a patent only if the applicant files a terminal disclaimer for the later patent, diselaiming the term of the later patent that extends beyond the term of original patent, so that both patents expire on the same day. In those cases in which the brand-name company files a terminal diselaimer for the later patent, the later patent does not provide rights beyond those of the earlier patent because both expire on the same day. This is the rationale behind the Patent Office s allowing the later patent. The later patent does provide additional protection from generic competition, however, if it generates a second, later-expiring 30-month stay. 

Process spectroscopy is, almost by definition, done to measure and control an industrial process. Almost all of the work is driven by business needs, such as improving profits or product quality. In competitive business environments, firms preserve every advantage possible by protecting valuable measurement systems as trade secrets. Thus, firms are often reluctant to reveal process spectroscopy applications, whether successful or not. Notable exceptions to this include the desire for positive publicity around improved safety or to direct the regulatory environment. Often, companies will patent the work and will not publish in a scientific journal until after the patent is filed, if ever. Many applications, such as the classic titanium oxide-monitoring paper, are revealed only years after implementation. As a consequence, the current state of the art in the literature is quite likely far out of date. 

One way to avoid the scenario just outlined for compound A, where effectively a whole year of priority filing for that compound has been lost, is to include the contents of each provisional patent application in the next provisional application. If that had been done in this example, the provisional application containing compound B that was filed on December 29, 2008, would also contain the subject matter from the earlier provisional application containing the compound A. This way, if for some reason the 1 year time frame was missed as in the example, the priority date for compound A would be December 29, 2008, rather than pushed all the way forward to July 29, 2009. This may not seem like much, but in a highly competitive area it can sometimes mean a lot.19... 

Soon after our initial experiments, we realized that we had something unusual, with potentially important opportunities. We were able to obtain some foreign patents on the biimidazoles and were concerned that these might tip off others in this field, for there was considerable activity, as can be seen from a listing of biimidazole work as reported in Chemical Abstracts. By 1964, we filed our first application on the leucodye oxidation. By then, we had a sufficient head start on this chemistry that we became less concerned about competitive activities. 

Evetts also tells a story that underlines the highly competitive nature of the ceramic wire business. Within days of the filing of one of his patents, a Japanese trading com-... 

Alternatively, if the invention and its commercial potential are not fully understood, the applicant could abandon or abandon and refile. This process carries with it the danger that someone else may have filed a patent application between applicant s priority date and the second priority date obtained through the refiling process. When this occurs, the applicant loses the rights to the invention in most countries. This can be especially dangerous in highly competitive areas in which many people are conducting research. 

A second approach to decrease the impact of public disclosure when a patent is filed is to apply for many patents on closely related technologies simultaneously. Some will relate to the core technology for which protection is desired. The others serve as distractors to those who would wish to discover and explore the new technology competitively. 

---