Patent Protection and Legal Opportunities
ID: 3972

Abstract: Judith Kim

Multi-step industrial bioprocessing provides unique legal opportunities and challenges. Opportunities for legal protection may exist where none is immediately obvious. For example, even though one step of a multi-step bioprocess may be known, a combination of two or more bioprocessing steps may still be patentable under certain circumstances. Realizing patent protection for these multi-step processes can provide protection from competitors, providing a competitive advantage in the marketplace. However, legal challenges associated with industrial bioprocessing also exist. If one or more bioprocessing steps in a multi-step production process are patent protected by a third party, the entire bioprocess may be blocked or need to be altered, resulting in an economic disadvantage. It is critical to identify at an early stage any patents covering any step in a multi-step process. This paper will explore these legal opportunities and challenges. Insight will be provided by the authors, as well as by leaders from a small, specialty pharmaceutical company and a large, international food product company.



Konrad Sechley

In order to complement the development of innovations within the biofuel and bioenergy sector, appropriate protection of these innovations is required. Changes to the scope of protection, and information required to support protection of innovation is changing within the major jurisdictions. For example in the US the percent of patents allowed has dropped from 70% in 2007 to 40% in 2009, and this trend is more pronounced in the biotech sector. Appropriate strategies are required to ensure proper patent protection of innovation. This presentation will compare trends within the European, US and Canadaian Patent Offices, with an emphasis the biotech sector and how these trend impact protection of biofuel and bioenergy innovation.





Presentation Title: Valuation of Intellectual Property for Industrial Biotechnology



Authors: Ray Roach, Andy Fennell, Steve Tuttle, Mark Whiteman, Gary Bellaver, Kevin McElgunn



Company: The Dow Chemical Company; Midland, MI



Presented by: Ray Roach



Abstract DRAFT



Biotechnology offers the potential for renewable and lower cost supply of industrially important chemicals. For example, in 2007 The Dow Chemical Company (TDCC) and Brazilian sugar and ethanol producer Crystalsev announced a joint venture slated to begin production of polyethylene from ethanol beginning in 2011. Building on the CrystalSev model, TDCC continues to seek additional opportunities for the propitious use of biotechnology and natural feedstocks to produce some of our most important products. Moving forward, TDCC would contract for and license certain elements of the development process from 3rd parties. Some examples of licensable elements for would be the metabolic pathway and micro-organism and the fermentation and downstream recovery process. In this presentation we will outline how TDCC assesses the value of intellectual property which we would seek to license from a technology developer. Important to the value calculation are a) operating costs relative to the incumbent technology and feedstock, b) development costs and the respective financial risks assumed by TDCC and the 3rd party and c) historic royalty practices for industrial catalyst licensing.







Moderator: Konrad Sechley, Gowling Lafleur Henderson, LLP (Canada)

Presenter 1: Legal Opportunities and Pitfalls in Industrial Bioprocessing
Judith Kim, Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox PLLC, (United States)  []

Presenter 2: Patent Protection in Biofuels and Bioenergy  
Konrad Sechley, Gowling Lafleur Henderson, LLP, (Canada)  [Confirmed]

Presenter 3: Valuation of Intellectual Property for Industrial Biotechnology  
Ray Roach, Dow AgroSciences, LLC, (United States)  [Confirmed]

Presenter 4 (if necessary): Best Practices in Information Analysis for Agricultural Biotechnology Innovation 
gerhard fischer, Syngenta Corporation, (Switzerland)  [Confirmed]

Panel Organizer:
Matthew Carr, Biotechnology Industry Organization, (United States)

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