By: Daniel A. Geselowitz, Ph.D.

Introduction This is a consolidated appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) from two U.S. PTO Patent Trial and Appeal Board decisions in the inter partes reviews of U.S. Patent 8,679,487 (“the ‘487 patent”), owned by Immunex. Sanofi-Aventis, et al. challenged the ‘487 patent, the patent being directed to certain human antibodies. The ‘487 patent was challenged in the following two inter partes reviews: the first inter partes review challenge contested the interpretation or construction of the claim term “human antibodies,” while the second inter partes review challenge concerned issues of inventorship. This paper is directed to the first inter partes review challenging the interpretation or construction of the claim term “human antibodies.”

Background The ‘487 patent is directed to antibodies that bind to the human interleukin-4 (IL-4) receptor, which might be useful in the treatment of inflammatory disorders. Claim 1 reads as follows: