The drugmaker can thank the Public Patent Foundation for the honor. The advocacy organization recently asked the US Patent & Trademark Office to review four HIV/AIDS drug patents relating to tenofovir disoproxil fumarate, or TDF. Gilead markets TDF in the US under the brand name Viread and as part of its Atripla combo product.

PubPat, as it calls itself, challenged the drugmaker because the the FDA won’t allow anyone other than Gilead to distribute TDF in the US, because Gilead claims the four challenged patents offer exclusive rights. “Every person suffering from HIV/AIDS has a right to get the best medical treatment science can offer, without any unjustified impediments placed in their way,” says Dan Ravicher, PubPat’s executive director. “This includes Americans infected with HIV/AIDS, who are entitled to the best pharmaceuticals possible without undeserved patents making them exorbitantly expensive.”

In its March filings challenging the patents, PUBPAT says it submitted prior work that the US PTO didn’t review before granting the patents to Gilead. PubPat also describes how the prior work invalidates the patents, and says the US PTO finds that its filings indeed raised “substantial questions” regarding the validity of each of the four Gilead patents. The group says the US PTO will now decide whether they deserve to exist or not.

You can read the US PTO actions concerning the reviews here.