By Doug Macron

A US District Court late last month agreed to a request by Alnylam Pharmaceuticals to stay a suit it filed against US Patent and Trademark Office over the terms of a patent submitted by the company’s one-time German subsidiary.

The request, which was submitted jointly with the USPTO, sought to stay the suit until a ruling is made on an appeal in an unrelated but similar patent-term suit that drug makers Wyeth and Elan Pharma filed against the patent office.