Congratulations to Sam Digirolamo, Michael Annis, and Dan Cohn on a precedent setting intellectual property decision for Husch Blackwell. This is concerning the American Simmental Association, which is attempting to invalidate a set of patents directed to utilizing genetic information to value feed animals.

These petitions for post-grant review, filed in January and February of 2015, respectively, concern patents related to systems and methods for determining the relative market value of a sale group and for generating a genetic merit scorecard. These patents were also at issue in Case No. 1:14-cv-01040-RBJ in the District of Colorado, since dismissed. Leachman Cattle filed a preliminary response on March 23, 2015. However, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) sided with the American Simmental Association, determining that it was more likely than not to prevail in a Post Grant Review trail, based on its Petitions. The PTAB therefore instituted trial on June 19. These petitions resulted in the first instance of a trial in a Post Grant Review proceeding.