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Sovereign Immunity For Rent: How The Commodification Of Tribal Sovereign Immunity Reflects The Failures Of The U.S. Patent System, Katrina G. Geddes

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

Last year, a Fortune 500 pharmaceutical company attempted to rent the sovereign immunity of an American Indian tribe in order to shield its patents on a dry-eye drug from invalidation by generic competitors in inter partes review. Pharmaceutical firms are notorious for pursuing unconventional methods to extend the duration of their patents and, in this sense, the maneuver is unsurprising. The exploitation, however, of an historically disenfranchised community with limited economic opportunities is particularly unsettling. This Article will provide, firstly, a factual summary of the legal background of this case; secondly, a review of the February 2018 decision of the …