Brinckerhoff Comments on Medical Treatment Patents

Partner Courtenay Brinckerhoff is quoted in a Law360 article, “Fed. Circ. Clouds Landscape For Medical Treatment Patents,” about a recent appeals court decision invalidating claims of five Mallinckrodt patents on Inomax, a drug used to treat babies with breathing disorders.

Brinckerhoff said the ruling appears to foreclose patents on such methods of non-treatment, though it’s not clear what could make such claims patentable. “I think most of the Federal Circuit judges believe method-of-treatment claims where you’re actually treating someone are eligible,” she said. “My concern is the slippery slope of that line.”