USPTO cancels Sérélys Pharma's pollen patents

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has cancelled two of Sérélys Pharma’s patents relating to the therapeutic use of pollen extracts.

Sérélys specializes in therapies to treat hormonal and reproductive ailments. Until the successful challenge, the Monaco-based pharmaceutical company held patents on the application of certain water-soluble and fat-soluble pollen extracts from the Poaceae family of plants in treating pre-menstrual syndrome (PMS) and menopausal symptoms.

In making its decision to cancel the existing patents, the USPTO cited the lack of specificity in Sérélys’s patent filings and the failure of the company’s claimed uses to meet the requisite degree of inventiveness and novelty for continued patent protection.

Ohio-based Graminex, a producer of flower-pollen extract products, brought the re-examination request regarding Sérélys’s patents in October 2017.

The use of pollen-based products as a treatment for PMS-related and menopause-related symptoms has received increased attention following a 2002 study, which showed significant effectiveness in addressing symptoms.

Re-examination materials related to Sérélys Pharma’s former patents are publicly available on the USPTO’s Patent Application Information Retrieval system under the application numbers 90/014,026 and 90/014,027.

Author: Wes Dutcher-Walls, 2018/2019 Articling Student-at-law