Legislative patent reform may be stalled, but U.S. courts have decided, or are considering, a number of precedent-setting intellectual property cases. One of the most recent was the Supreme Court's ruling that pharmaceutical drugmaker MedImmune Inc. could challenge the validity of a Genentech Inc. patent without first breaching a licensing agreement it had with Genentech. (The Deal Pipeline subscribers can get the details
here.)
This fall, the Supreme Court is expecting to take up another important IP case, Bilski v. Doll, which centers on the ability to patent a method of hedging risks in commodities trading. In this edition of Inside The Deal, Jeff Whittle, a partner with Bracewell and Giuliani LLP, says one question the court will consider is how difficult enforcement of a business method patent would be. -
Suzanne Stevens 
