United States Federal Circuit

Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. v. Sandoz, Inc., 2011-1126

In consolidated patent infringement actions by the holder of a patent on the drug Abilify against generic drug manufacturers who had submitted abbreviated new drug application (ANDA) filings and then counterclaimed that the plaintiff's claims were invalid for obviousness and obviousness-type double patenting, the district court's judgment in favor of the plaintiff is affirmed, where: 1) the district court correctly determined that the defendants failed to prove by clear and convincing evidence that the asserted claims would have been obvious over asserted prior art compounds; and 2) the drug differed structurally from the compound in a claim of an existing patent, so there was no nonstatutory obviousness-type double patenting.

Appellate Information

• Decided 05/07/2012
• Published 05/07/2012

Judges

• Lourie

Court

• United States Federal Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• James B. Monroe, Steven E. Feldman