Archive for January, 2010

Seventh Circuit Rules in favor of WARF in Licensing Dispute with Xenon Pharmaceuticals

Written by on Thursday, January 14th, 2010

The Seventh Circuit decided last week in favor of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (“WARF”) in its licensing dispute with Xenon Pharmaceuticals.

As I stated in my Silicon Valley IP Licensing Blog posting on this case, I strongly agree with the outcome in this case and I view this decision as an affirmation of a licensor’s rights in an exclusive license of joint intellectual property.  Had the case been decided differently, I certainly would have had some practical concerns as an IP licensing attorney as to how exclusive licenses to joint intellectual property in collaborations should be drafted.

For another take on this case, you might want to check out PatentlyO, which did not really take a position on the outcome, but provided a little different commentary on the court’s decision.

While this case may not have any groundbreaking precedential value as an intellectual property decision, I think it provides some good practical lessons for anyone drafting or negotiating license and collaboration agreements in the biotech world, whether representing a corporation or working for a tech transfer office at a university, as well as for those who are actually executing the agreements once they are signed.  Clearly, some mistakes were made here that resulted in expensive litigation and will likely result in a costly damage award against Xenon as the loser.


Category: Biotech Deals, Biotech Disputes, Biotech Legal Disputes, Biotech Patent Licensing, Practical Tips, University Tech Transfer  |  Comments Off on Seventh Circuit Rules in favor of WARF in Licensing Dispute with Xenon Pharmaceuticals

SBIR Reauthorization Effort Continues to be at Standstill

Written by on Tuesday, January 12th, 2010

Despite ongoing negotiations in the Senate and House throughout 2009, the new year is beginning with the SBIR reauthorization effort at a continued standstill.

While Congress did successfully save the SBIR/STTR from extinction by implementing a series of five continuing resolutions (“CR”) since the authorization expired back in September 2008, no permanent solution has been reached and the current CR is set to expire on January 31, 2010.  Thus, the SBIR/STTR programs continue to be in limbo.

If you have been following this issue at all and are familiar with the SBIR/STTR programs, you may be wondering why these programs continue to be in a perpetual state of almost extinction.

According to the SBIR Gateway, which has been covering this issue, the problem is that the Senate and the House cannot agree on the terms of a reauthorization bill.  There are apparently eight issues that are still being debated:

  1. Length of reauthorization;
  2. Venture capital participation in SBIR;
  3. Award levels;
  4. Sequential Phase II award;
  5. Retention of Phase I requirement;
  6. Allocation increase;
  7. Administrative funds; and
  8. Rural and state outreach.

SBIR Gateway attributes the problems to the fact that ” the more the Senate was willing to compromise, the more the House wanted” and asserts that the “House Small Business Committee under the leadership of Nydia Velazquez and her staffer Michael Day wanted to hold the SBIR program hostage.”  According to SBIR Gateway, a key issue is that Velazquez is receiving large campaign contributions from the National Venture Capital Association (“NVCA”) and biotech investors, and they are the groups who would stand to benefit from the House Bill the most.   So, the argument is that Velazquez is unwilling to agree to more than a two year reauthorization for this very reason.

Regardless of what is going on here, it is clear that the whole SBIR reauthorization effort has become bogged down in politics and has been therefore left on the backburner.  Based on what I personally have observed this past year, I would argue that this seems to be the current state of affairs for anything involving small business: Congress seems to have put small businesses in general on the backburner for whatever reason, despite the fact that small businesses, which include biotech companies and other start-ups, provide the majority of jobs in this country and unemployment as well as underemployment continues to be the overarching concern of most Americans today. So, small businesses have largely been left to fend for themselves through this recession and deal with the fact that access to capital has all but dried up, while Congress has been out bailing out banks, failed auto companies, and other “too big to fail” institutions–which employ only a small percentage of the nation’s workforce–with our taxpayer dollars.

Does any of this really make sense?

The California Biotech Law Blog would like to see Congress to reassess its priorities in 2010:  it is time to put the focus on small business.   I am certain that many of you in the biotech community would agree that getting serious about finally passing a  SBIR/STTR reauthorization bill would be a good start.


Category: Biotech Legislative Developments  |  Comments Off on SBIR Reauthorization Effort Continues to be at Standstill

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