The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit invalidated patent claims for a nutritional supplement to enhance muscle performance or recovery from muscle fatigue based on an advertisement for Weider’s VICTORY™ Professional Protein published in the June 1996 issue Flex Magazine.
Trade secret and patent protection for nutraceuticals. Can’t get more current than that. And three lawyers from Foley & Lardner provide info on both in a pair of articles published in the last week or so. First there’s “Keeping trade secrets under wrap” published on NUTRAingredientsUSA.com which points out, and rightfully so, that trade secrets [...]
This article entitled “Preserving intellectual property before a patent is issued” provides an excellent overview of the patent protection available to neutraceutical companies. The authors, James F. Ewing, Ph.D. and Michel Morency, Ph.D. of Foley & Lardner, suggest that “investment in solid intellectual property protection for key product brands and technology in the global marketplace…is [...]
Archer Daniels Midland a/k/a “supermarket to the world” has sued Sabinsa Corporation, a maker of nutritional ingredients, for patent infringment related to patents that ADM licenses from Novogen. All the patents concern isoflavones extracted from soy. To read the complaint, click here. For an article on the ADM litigation, including a discussion of ADM’s prior [...]
The Original Creatine Patent Company, a UK firm that owns several patents for creatine supplement formulations, has sued NBTY and several of its subsidiaries, including Vitamin World, Nature’s Bounty, and Puritan’s Pride, for patent infringement. For the complaint, click here.
While nutritional supplement patents are not unheard of, it is still somewhat unusual for nutritional supplement makers to apply for patents on their formulations. Instead, supplement makers typically rely on trade secret protection, creating proprietary blends of ingredients and keeping the formula secret. Unlike makers of prescription drugs, supplement manufacturers do not have to endure [...]
