Paralegal Workflow for Sequence Listing Management in Patent Law Firms
Sequence listings sit at an unusual intersection in patent practice: they’re a formatting requirement, but formatting errors in them can cost an applicant subject matter, priority, or even enforceability. That makes sequence listing management one of the highest-stakes, most detail-sensitive workflows a patent paralegal handles – and one where a disciplined, repeatable process matters more […]
EPO Online Filing System: Submitting Sequence Listings via Online Filing 2.0
If you’re planning to submit a sequence listing “via epoline,” it’s worth knowing up front that epoline is a legacy brand name. It was the EPO’s original suite of electronic filing tools, launched in the early 2000s. That brand has since been retired: filing today is done through Online Filing 2.0 (OLF 2.0), the EPO’s current […]
Biosensor Patent Applications Involving Biological Sequences: A Compliance Guide
1. Introduction Biosensors – devices that use a biological recognition element (an enzyme, antibody, aptamer, nucleic acid probe, whole cell, or receptor) coupled to a transducer to detect a target analyte – sit at the intersection of molecular biology, materials science and electrical engineering. When a biosensor invention incorporates a biological sequence (a nucleotide or […]
Surgical Robotics Patent Invalidity: FDA 510(k) Submissions and IEEE BioRobotics Prior Art
Introduction Surgical robotics sits at an unusual intersection for prior art purposes: it is simultaneously a heavily regulated medical device field and a fast-moving academic robotics discipline. That combination creates two prior art sources that patent challengers in this space rely on more heavily than in most other technology areas – FDA 510(k) submissions, generated […]
Double Patenting Rejections: How Proofreading Helps Identify Claim Overlap
Introduction Double patenting is one of the more conceptually subtle rejections a patent applicant can face, precisely because it doesn’t turn on prior art at all. It turns on the applicant’s own filings – a comparison between the claims of a pending application and the claims of another patent or application the same applicant (or […]
Prime Editing and Base Editing Patents: Sequence Listing Compliance Guide
1. Why This Topic Deserves Its Own Guide Prime editing and base editing patents are among the most sequence-dense filings in biotechnology. A single application can disclose: Because these elements don’t map neatly onto the “plain” DNA/RNA/protein sequences that WIPO Standard ST.26 was originally designed around, prime and base editing filings are unusually prone to […]
The Role of Sequence Listing Accuracy in Biotech Patent Valuation
When investors, licensees, or acquirers value a biotech patent, most of the attention goes to the obvious things: claim scope, freedom-to-operate, remaining patent term, clinical-stage progress and the competitive landscape. One component gets far less scrutiny than it deserves, given how much damage it can do – the sequence listing. For any patent disclosing nucleotide […]
PEGylated Biologics: Sequence Listing Considerations for Modified Protein Patents
Patents covering biologics – therapeutic proteins, antibodies, peptides and their derivatives – carry an obligation that small-molecule patents don’t: a formal sequence listing. When the claimed invention is a PEGylated protein, that requirement collides with a structural reality of PEGylation itself – polyethylene glycol is not an amino acid, has no place in a standard […]
Third-Party Sequence Listing Submissions in Patent Prosecution
Biotechnology patent applications occupy a unique corner of prosecution practice: the applicant’s own disclosure typically includes a formal sequence listing – a structured file of nucleotide and/or amino acid sequences that supports the claims – and much of the relevant prior art in the field consists of sequence data too, published in databases like GenBank, […]
Therapeutic Peptide Patent Applications: Sequence Listing and Claim Drafting Tips
Peptide therapeutics – from GLP-1 agonists to peptide hormones, antimicrobial peptides and cyclic peptide scaffolds – sit at an awkward intersection of patent practice: they’re chemical compounds, but they’re also defined by an amino acid sequence, which brings in a whole layer of formatting rules that small-molecule patents never have to deal with. Getting a […]