Should-Read: Ann Marie Marciarille: Patent Transfer to Trigger Sovereign Immunity Defense

Should-Read: Ann Marie Marciarille: Patent Transfer to Trigger Sovereign Immunity Defense: “It is absolutely fascinating to  read that that Allergan and the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe have reportedly made arrangements for transfer of certain patent rights… http://www.marciarille.com/2017/09/patent-transfer-to-trigger-state-action-immunity-defense.html

…in exchange for a substantial fee, to a sovereign, such as a Native American tribe, that may invoke sovereign immunity to defeat patent challenge litigation. The hot new dry eye drug Restasis would then be licensed back to Allergan by the tribe.

The article in the New York Times described this approach as “novel” and made me curious about other such transfers of intellectual property rights to defeat patent challenges in this way.  I can’t find any others. It takes a kind of genius to think of such a method of gaming the legal system but no one seems to want to take credit, publicly at least. My favorite part of the narrative is the one that says the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe proposed the arrangement after being schooled in it by an apparently free floating law firm.  Right…