Mohawk Tribe Holding Patent For Big Pharma Company

An Interesting New Tactic

How do you protect your pharmaceutical patent from generic pharma companies trying to contest that patent?

Well, it may not be an obvious answer, but what you do is you get a Native American Tribe to hold that patent for you. St Regis Mohawks are leveraging their protection from Intellectual Property Rights proceedings to make money from Allergan and an unnamed technology company.

It may not be a totally solid fortification around the patent, which uses the concept of sovereign immunity, but it obviously offers an extra layer of protection that has proven to be very attractive.

The danger lies in the fact that it could place the sovereign immunity under threat — a gamble in the short term that may have unforeseen ramifications in the future.

It has attracted some high profile coverage however, and who knows, with the amount of money that big pharma rakes in for some of these patents, perhaps it will provide the bands with enough capital offset the potential harm to their legal status. $13.75 million, plus $15 million a year in annual revenues is not to be sneezed at. I do not know what their financial situation was previous to this deal, but perhaps this is one of those things that they really should milk for its lifespan, because who knows when some way around the defense will be found?

This may have a knock on affect for other Tribes, and it definitely displays some very innovative thinking. One hopes though that it isn’t used as a reason to strip some of those protections away, which if it comes to the attention of certain people, it may be.