Client Successes

Patent Interferences/Oppositions

Today, cotton farmers everywhere are enjoying higher crop yields while using a fraction of the pesticide, thanks to remarkable genes that protect plants from a destructive pest called the bollworm. At Marshall, Gerstein & Borun, our patent interference team helped sow the seeds of that success.

Back in 1996, the gene’s developer turned to Marshall, Gerstein & Borun when a three-way interference was declared with two other competing patent applications. Because our client owned the rights of two of the three inventive entities in interference, the Patent Office had forced our client to eliminate one of its inventive entities. Drawing on the skill and experience of our multidisciplinary team, we crafted an innovative legal strategy and successfully appealed an issue to the Federal Circuit, resulting in a precedent-setting decision. Thanks to that success, our client was able to maintain two inventive entities in the interference until a new count encompassing its best priority evidence was adopted and discovery was completed.

A favorable interference decision in January 2004 established our client’s right to priority. That not only improved their position in concurrent district court litigation, it ensured they could reap the rewards of their ingenuity — and that farmers around the world can strike a better balance between economics and ecology.

At Marshall, Gerstein & Borun, our patent interference team assembles a veteran group of attorneys with substantial experience in the highly specialized practice of provoking and prosecuting patent interferences. Our goal is to provide our clients with the "high ground" in competitive technologies. In addition to our knowledge of the complex legal nuances of interference law, our multi-disciplinary team is able to bring advanced technical training to bear in order to define — and redefine — the interfering subject matter to maximize our clients' rights.