Tribal sovereign immunity does not apply to inter partes review proceedings, the US Patent and Trademark Office’s (USPTO’s) Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) has determined. The finding came as the board dismissed the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe’s motion to terminate challenges from Akorn, Mylan and Teva to six US patents shielding the Restasis (cyclosporine) brand that Allergan controversially sold to the Tribe last year.
Having first declined the Tribe’s invitation to “hold for the first time that the doctrine of tribal immunity should be...
