Patent Updates: U.S. Patents

Below are cited the recent U.S. Patents issued by the USPTO on January 16, 2007 to Indian Enterprises. U.S. Patent No. 7,164,022 The ‘022 patent issued to Aurobindo Pharma Ltd. is directed to an improved process for the preparation of pure Finasteride of Formula I which comprises converting dihydrofinasteride of Formula IV to finasteride through novel protected dihydrofinasteride of Formula V and protected finasteride intermediates. The process comprises protecting dihydrofinasteride of Formula IV with suitable protecting group selected from --- benzoyl, substituted benzoyl, benzyl, substituted benzyl or benzhydryl group --- in an organic solvent selected from the group consisting of --- hydrocarbons, halogenated hydrocarbons, ketones, esters, and mixtures thereof --- to obtain a compound of formula V, further treating protected dihydrofinasteride of formula V with a silylating agent followed by quinine derivative with or without acid catalyst to obtain protected finasteride of formula VI and finally deprotecting compound of formula VI in an acidic or basic conditions to obtain Finasteride of formula. IPC Class: C07D 221/18 (20060101); C07D 221/04 (20060101) U.S. Patent No. 7,164,023 The ‘023 patent issued to Wockhardt is directed to crystalline S-(-)-9-fluoro-6,7-dihydro-8-(4-hydroxypiperidin-1-yl)-5-methyl-1-oxo-1H,- 5H-benzo[i,j]quinolizine-2-carboxylic acid L-arginine salt tetrahydrate, a process for its preparation and pharmaceutical formulations incorporating it as the active ingredient for use in treating microbial infections. The process comprises heating a suspension of S-(-)-9-fluoro-6,7-dihydro-8-(4-hydroxypiperidin-1-yl)-5-methyl-1-oxo-1H, 5H-benzo[i,j]quinolizine-2-carboxylic acid L-arginine salt tetrahydrate in an organic solvent and water at 70-80 ºC to obtain a clear solution, cooling the solution to provide a crystalline substance which is further isolated by filtration or centrifugation to obtain the crystalline form of S-(-)-9-fluoro-6,7-dihydro-8-(4-hydroxypiperidin-1-yl)-5-methyl-1-oxo-1H, 5H-benzo[i,j]quinolizine-2-carboxylic acid L-arginine salt tetrahydrate at 30-35 ºC and finally air drying of the crystalline form of S-(-)-9-fluoro-6,7-dihydro-8-(4-hydroxypiperidin-1-yl)-5-methyl-1-oxo-1H,- 5H-benzo[i,j]quinolizine-2-carboxylic acid L-arginine salt tetrahydrate at a temperature between 30-35 ºC. IPC Class: C07D 401/04 (20060101); C07D 401/14 (20060101) U.S. Patent No. 7,164,305 The ‘305 patent issued to STMicroelectronics Pvt. Ltd. is directed to a high-voltage input buffer circuit including a first NMOS transistor having its source terminal connected to the input pin, its gate terminal connected to a first reference voltage and its drain terminal connected to a first output terminal; a second NMOS transistor having its gate terminal connected to said first reference voltage and its source terminal connected to said first output terminal; a first PMOS transistor having its gate terminal connected to the drain terminal of said second NMOS transistor, its drain terminal connected to a second reference voltage lower than said first reference voltage and its source terminal connected to a second output terminal; a second PMOS transistor having its drain terminal connected to the drain terminal of said second NMOS transistor, its source terminal connected to said second output terminal, and its gate terminal connected to a control voltage; and a third PMOS transistor having its drain terminal connected to said second output terminal, its source terminal connected to a supply voltage, and its gate terminal connected to said control voltage. IPC Class: H03L 5/00 (20060101) U.S. Patent No. 7,165,068 The ‘068 patent issued to Zycus Infotech Pvt. Ltd. is directed to a method for classification of electronic catalog entries at any level into one or more categories, comprising the steps of: training the catalog classification system in at least one language with the help of pre-classified training catalogs, classifying the said catalog entry into top most relevant categories in the said category hierarchy, assigning a confidence value to each of the said classified catalog entry, wherein a user of said method can configure the method to classify said catalog in a specified confidence range, and automated sampling of the said classified catalogs for quality assurance. IPC Class: G06F 17/30 (20060101)