Thursday, January 11, 2007

Supreme Court rules in patent case

On January 9, 2007, the Supreme Court announced their decision in the Medimmune, Inc. v. Genentech, Inc. case. This case involved the issue of whether or not those who enter into licensing agreements with patent holders can challenge the validity of the patent in court. In the 8-1 decision, the Court decided that they could, maintaining that by entering into licensing agreements or paying royalties to a patent holder one did not thereby forfeit the right to challenge that patent in court.