Orange Book Companion

Orange Book Companion® Adds New Features and Capabilities
Historical patent and exclusivity data for FDA-approved drugs now available

Hillsborough, New Jersey – September 18, 2018 – Bruce Pokras’ Blazing Dawn Software is thrilled to now add historical patent and exclusivity data to their lead product, the Orange Book Companion® (“OBC”), in a new section called the “Orange Book Archive.” This new section provides easy access to historical patent and exclusivity data for FDA-approved drugs.

Subscribers to the OBC online service see easy to read tables that, in addition to patent numbers and expiration dates for a drug, contain patent titles, descriptions of the claims, and include hyperlinks directly to the patents at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. These and many other enhancements distinguish the OBC from the FDA’s free Electronic Orange Book.

The new “Orange Book Archive” section of the OBC contains expired patent and exclusivity data going back to the earliest days of the so-called “Hatch-Waxman” Act in 1984. That data is formatted in the same easy to read and use tables in which the OBC displays present-day data.

“There have been many instances when I have been asked about the patents and exclusivities that were formerly listed in the FDA’s Orange Book for a drug,” said Bruce Pokras, Founder and Creator of Blazing Dawn Software and the Orange Book Companion, “the Orange Book Archive section of the OBC is an easy way to answer that need.”

Orange Book Companion subscription information can be found at the product web site, www.orangebookcompanion.com. Currently, subscriptions are available for the OBC online service, as well as in the form of twelve monthly flash drives mailed to the subscriber.

About Blazing Dawn Software
www.blazingdawn.com
Since 2003 Blazing Dawn Software has been developing cutting edge solutions for home and business. Patent-related products include Patent GrabberTM for patent searching and downloading, and Family-izerTM, a free web application for retrieving patent family data from the European Patent Office’s “INPADOC” service.

About the Orange Book Companion
www.orangebookcompanion.com
The Orange Book Companion (“OBC”) was created and is once again managed by its founder, Bruce Pokras, a pharmaceutical patent attorney with several decades of experience. Mr. Pokras launched in the 2002 (originally under the name "OrangeBookPatents.com") to make it easier to research the patent and exclusivity status of FDA-approved drugs.

Contact Information:
Bruce A. Pokras



OrangeBookPatents.com introduces a book version of its premium U.S. drug patent expiration and exclusivity information


Hillsborough, New Jersey, USA -- Septemeber 30, 2002 -- OrangeBookPatents.com announces the introduction of the Orange Book Companion(TM), a two-volume reference set containing extensive information on the patents and market exclusivities that potentially protect brand name drugs from generic competition. The books contain most of the information that is available through the OrangeBookPatents.com online service, so a lack of an Internet connection will no longer prevent people from having access to the service's premium data.
What is OrangeBookPatents.com
Bruce Pokras, a pharmaceutical company patent attorney, launched OrangeBookPatents.com (www.orangebookpatents.com) in April, 2001, to make it easier to research the patent and exclusivity status of FDA-approved drugs. The information that he makes available is the result of combining data from seven separate sources, so subscribers to the online service see much more than they would by only using the FDA's listing of patent and exclusivity information that is part of its so-called "Orange Book."

One example of the additional information provided to OrangeBookPatents.com subscribers is the inclusion of a short description of the subject matter that each patent covers. Further, each patent number is a link that takes the user directly to the text of the patent, thus saving the time that would be needed to look up the patent separately. All the other enhancements are described at the OrangeBookPatents.com web site.
What is the Orange Book Companion(TM)?
The Orange Book Companion is a two-volume set of books that contain nearly all of OrangeBookPatents.com's premium data in a convenient and easily readable format. Mr. Pokras has observed that there are situations in which Internet access is not available, and that there are still people who are not comfortable using a web browser to obtain information. The Orange Book Companion is perfect for those situations and people. Volume 1 contains drug patent and exclusivity information sorted alphabetically by the tradename and generic name of each product. Volume 2 contains the drug patent and exclusivity information sorted alphabetically by company name and chronologically by the next-to-expire patent for each product.

The OrangeBookPatents.com web site has further details, including downloadable samples of both volumes and purchasing information.

Contact Information:
Bruce A. Pokras < >



OrangeBookPatents.com introduces online access to its premium US drug patent and exclusivity information

Hillsborough, New Jersey, USA -- January 18, 2002 -- OrangeBookPatents.com announces the opening of its new online service. The online service makes access to all of OBPatents.com's premium US drug patent and exclusivity data files as easy as starting a web browser. Previously, the premium data files were e-mailed to subscribers each month for placement on their Intranets. The online service was created in response to requests from potential subscribers for a less labor-intensive way of obtaining access.

What is OrangeBookPatents.com?
Bruce Pokras, a pharmaceutical company patent attorney, launched OrangeBookPatents.com (www.orangebookpatents.com) in April, 2001, to make it easier to research the patent and exclusivity status of FDA-approved drugs. The hyperlinking in the OBPatents.com data files makes it extremely easy to jump back and forth between Orange Book information and the text of patents at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. However, the original subscriptions required each subscriber to have a system in place to add the Premium data files to their Intranet each month. While there are advantages to having the Premium data files directly on an Intranet, some potential subscribers felt that it would be inconvenient to update the files every time the new ones became available.
What is the OrangeBookPatents.com Online option?
Subscribers to the Online service can access the full scope of OBPatents.com's Premium data from any web browser by just entering their organization's user ID and password. Once logged in, an individual user can usually go back to the Online service for several hours without having to reenter the user ID and password each time. Access to the Online service should be reliable since it is hosted by Earthlink(TM), one of America's premier Internet Service Providers.
What else is new at OrangeBookPatents.com?
Patent and exclusivity information that is in order by NDA Applicant has recently been added. There are also new patent files that are in order chronologically by the date of each product's next listed patent expiration date. Finally, OBPatents.com has added a whole new section of Reference Listed Drug information.

The OrangeBookPatents.com web site has further details, including examples of all the Premium data files and subscription information.

Contact Information:
Bruce A. Pokras < >


OrangeBookPatents.com adds "self-contained" option for speedier, more convenient access to US drug patent and exclusivity information

Hillsborough, New Jersey, USA -- June 24, 2001 -- OrangeBookPatents.com announces a new "self-contained" option for annual subscribers to its US drug patent and exclusivity information service. Subscribers to the Self-Contained service receive the full text of every patent in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's so-called "Orange Book," along with data files for every drug that has a patent or exclusivity. This option provides much faster and more convenient access to drug patent and exclusivity information.

What is OrangeBookPatents.com?
Bruce Pokras, a pharmaceutical company patent attorney, launched OrangeBookPatents.com (www.orangebookpatents.com) in April, 2001, to provide easy access to patent and exclusivity information for FDA-approved drugs. His web site contains all of the patent and exclusivity information from the Orange Book in an easy-to-use, highly hyperlinked format. In its original version, the hyperlinks led to drug product information on the FDA's web site and to the text of patents on the US Patent and Trademark Office's web site. So a connection to the Internet, preferably a fast one, was needed.
What is the OrangeBookPatents.com Self-Contained option?
Subscribers who select the Self-Contained option receive the full text of every patent in the Orange Book, so access to the USPTO web site is not needed. (Since the USPTO blocks IP addresses or domains that have "unusually high numbers (1000 or more) of daily database accesses," having the full text of all the Orange Book patents on your own network or PC hard drives can save your organization from being cut off). Subscribers also receive product information files for every product in the Orange Book that has a patent or exclusivity, so access to the FDA's web site is not needed.

This combination of patent text and drug product information allows for extremely fast access to the data, either over the user's Intranet or from their own hard drive. Plus, laptop users will be able to take OrangeBookPatents.com with them where ever they go, without being bogged down by a 56K modem.

The OrangeBookPatents.com web site has further details, including examples of a product information file and full text patent, and subscription information.

Contact Information:
Bruce A. Pokras < >



OrangeBookPatents.com announces a new data format for subscribers that includes the title of every patent in the FDA's Orange Book

Hillsborough, New Jersey, USA -- June 11, 2001 -- OrangeBookPatents.com (www.orangebookpatents.com) was established to make it easier to investigate the patent and exclusivity situation of FDA-approved drugs. Now annual subscribers and purchasers of single "snapshots" of OBPatents.com information will automatically receive a set of Patent Title View files that list each product in the Orange Book (by trademark) along with the corresponding patent numbers, expiration dates and patent titles.

What is the advantage of patent titles?
While some companies will attempt to use ambiguous titles for their patents, in most cases the title does give some indication of the subject matter. For example, the following are the patents for Merck's TECZEM (diltiazem malate; enalapril maleate) product:
4472380 MAR 18,2002 PED
Amino acid derivatives as antihypertensives
4880631 SEP 24,2007
Controlled porosity osmotic pump
4968507 JUL 25,2006
Controlled porosity osmotic pump
4983598 JAN 08,2008
Pharmaceutical composition containing diltiazem and angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor
Thus, at a single glance users can get a quick grasp of the patent portfolio for a drug. As is standard at OBPatents.com, each patent number in a Patent Title View list is linked to the full text of that patent on the Internet site of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
What else is new at OrangeBookPatents.com?
This month OBPatents.com also introduced a "Local Home Page" for subscribers and Snapshot purchasers who want to keep the OBPatents.com data files on the hard drives of their PCs. This file is automatically included with each monthly update that subscribers receive, and will be included with any Snapshots that are purchased. Once users add the Local Home file to their bookmarks or favorites, they will have nearly instantaneous access to every data file that OBPatents.com offers.

Contact Information:
Bruce A. Pokras < >



OrangeBookPatents.com provides free, easy-to-use access to drug patent and exclusivity information

Hillsborough, New Jersey, USA -- April 25, 2001 -- With drug prices being in the news, the issue of patented versus generic drugs is a subject of great debate. To make it easier to see the patent and exclusivity information for FDA-approved drugs, Bruce Pokras, a pharmaceutical company patent attorney, has launched OrangeBookPatents.com. This web site contains all of the patent and exclusivity information from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's so-called "Orange Book" in an easy-to-use, highly hyperlinked format.

What is the FDA's Orange Book?
Officially titled "Approved Drug Products with Therapeutic Equivalence Evaluations," the Orange Book lists every drug that has been approved for use in humans by the FDA. An addendum contains information about the patents and market exclusivities that cover some of the listed drugs.
What is the OrangeBookPatents.com web site?
The OrangeBookPatents.com web site (www.OrangeBookPatents.com) contains the patent and exclusivity addendum information from the Orange Book in easy-to-use tables that have the products arranged alphabetically by trademark. The tables make it easy to see, with a single glance, all of the patent and exclusivity information for all the different variations of each drug product.

What makes these tables even more useful are their hypertext links. Each New Drug Application number is linked to the detailed information for that product in the FDA's "Electronic Orange Book." Additionally, each patent number is linked directly to the full text of that patent on the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's web site. This is much easier than first getting the patent numbers from the Electronic Orange Book and then searching for those patents at the PTO site.

In addition to free access to the files that are alphabetical by trademark, OrangeBookPatents.com offers reasonably priced annual subscriptions to an enhanced collection of files that can be made available to an organization's employees over its Intranet. Subscribers may choose the full set of files, or may choose a company-specific set of files that only contain the patent and exclusivity information for the products of a single company. Moreover, if an annual subscription is not desired, the full set of files and the company-specific set of files are both available as a one-time "snapshot." Further information is available on the OrangeBookPatents.com web site.

Contact Information:
Bruce A. Pokras < >



Back to Orange Book Companion Home Page