United States Federal Circuit

In this patent infringement action, plaintiffs sued defendants for infringement of claims 6 and 12-16 of their reexamined '045 patent, which relates to gatifloxacin, an aqueous liquid pharmaceutical eye drop composition with added disodium edetate solution. Judgment of the district court finding that the claims of the patent were infringed but were invalid for obviousness is affirmed, where: 1) the district court properly applied a presumption of validity, considering both the evidence of obviousness and the evidence of unexpected results, to finding that defendants set forth clear and convincing evidence of invalidity in this case; 2) it was not clear error for the district court to conclude that the unexpected results evidence that plaintiffs relied upon during reexamination did not withstand scrutiny by defendants' experts and the district court; and 3) the district court properly concluded that the theories presented during reexamination proved too weak when challenged in a judicial forum to rise to the level of unexpected results sufficient to rebut a strong case of obviousness.

Appellate Information

• Decided 03/20/2015
• Published 03/20/2015

Judges

• Plager

Court

• United States Federal Circuit

Counsel