By Kevin E. Noonan — Novelty is perhaps the principal, most fundamental requirement for patentability, and depriving the public of anything in the prior art must be avoided. The Federal Circuit recently reinforced the primacy of these rubrics in Biogen MA, Inc. v. EMD Serono, Inc. The issues arose in litigation over Biogen’s Rebif* product for the treatment of multiple sclerosis comprising a recombinant interferon-β (“IFN-β”). Biogen asserted U.S. Patent No. 7,588,755 (“‘755 patent”) in this litigation; the Federal Circuit identified Claim 1 as being representative: 1. A method for immunomodulation or treating a viral condition[ ], a viral disease,…
