"Seeking Alpha" labels Abbvie a patent troll. Blocking patents.

"Seeking Alpha" has a post on 12 November 2014 titled Gilead Sciences Gets Ambushed By The Patent Troll, AbbVie

For those not familiar with the history of Abbvie, the following is from wikipedia:


On October 19, 2011, Abbott Laboratories announced that it planned to separate into two publicly traded companies, one focused on diversified medical products and the other on research-based pharmaceuticals. The medical products company retained the Abbott name, and the research-based pharmaceuticals company was named AbbVie.[1][2] The separation was effective January 1, 2013[3] and AbbVie was officially listed on the New York Stock Exchange (ABBV) January 2, 2013


The underlying issue, mentioned in the Alpha post is


AbbVie cannot market Harvoni since it does not own patents on either individual drug in the combination, but can potentially compel royalty payments and damages from Gilead.


This is an example of blocking patents, historically illustrated in the classic diode/triode case.

[posted 13 Nov. 2014 at 12:15am (Eastern)]