In Mayo, Federal Circuit Seeks to Head Off Disputes Over When Claims Are “Deemed Allowable” by Counting Continued Examination Time Until Notice of Allowance
Earlier this week, the Federal Circuit declined to further extend the patent term of an antibody patent held by the Mayo Foundation. In Mayo Foundation v. Iancu, the court held that the time spent on a request for continued examination (“RCE”) following a declaration of interference did not count toward the three-year application pendency period for purposes of patent term extension. As discussed below, the Mayo decision could have implications for the terms of biologics patents issued following a request for continued examination.