Almost every event in the life of a patent entails fees. Application fees, issue fees, fees for filing a Continuation, and the topic of this blog post: maintenance fees. Maintenance fees are paid to the USPTO to maintain a granted utility patent. (Design patents and plant patents are not subject to maintenance fees.) A patent-holder …
Pharma Company Accused of Using Legal Tricks to Squash Generic Version Last October, we wrote about the tactics used by pharma company AbbVie to artificially extend its patents on its billion-dollar drug Humira. Now six groups are filing lawsuits against AbbVie for “anticompetitive conduct.” Humira is a rheumatoid-arthritis and gut-disorders drug that enjoys sales of …
The makers of the world’s biggest-selling drug cheat competitors and consumers as they extend their exclusive right to sell Humira. Humira is a rheumatoid-arthritis and gut-disorders drug that enjoys sales of around $18 billion a year. Last Tuesday, one of its patents was set to expire. When a drug’s patent expires, generic manufacturers are free …