U.S. Cautious on Issuing AIDS Patents

Here’s a bit of practical advice for those aspiring to develop a cure for AIDS.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is extremely selective about AIDS-related treatments it’s willing to patent.

That’s the word from Lisa Haile, a San Diego lawyer who specializes in intellectual property. Haile, who has a PhD in molecular biology, will be the featured speaker Wednesday at a UC Irvine gathering for aspiring high-tech entrepreneurs.

Haile will caution developers of experimental drugs to narrowly focus their claims for AIDS treatments when applying for a patent. It’s better, for instance, for applicants to specify how some new drug will boost depressed levels of T cells--which help mobilize the immune system--rather than promise it can cure the entire disease, she says.

The patent office has shown great reluctance to approve new AIDS treatments because the disease is still not understood scientifically, she says. Such hesitancy arises, she says, “when we’ve got a disease for which there is no known cure.”

Haile will address these and related issues at the lunch sponsored by UCI’s Accelerate Technology program at the Small Business Development Center, 4199 Campus Drive, Suite 240, in Irvine. The event, which runs from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., costs $25 per person.

Barbara Marsh covers health care for The Times. She can be reached at (714) 966-7762 and at barbara.marsh@latimes.com