On 23 February 2018, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board of the USPTO determined that indigenous autonomy does not apply to patents and intellectual property matters.
The pronouncement was the result of a motion filed by the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe against the PTAB decision in not to dismiss an Inter Partes Review promoted against several of its patents, assigned by the pharmaceutical company Allergan in 2017 to the aforementioned tribe in exchange for an annual payment of 15 million dollars.
The scheme allowed Allergan to still exclusively control use of the underlying inventions and potentially benefit from the Sovereign Immunity given to Indian Nations within the United States.
The case will be appealed to the Federal Circuit.
