Patent Baristas

Andrx Pharmaceuticals has filed a patent infringement suit against the UK’s GlaxoSmithKline PLC over a version of the antidepressant Wellbutrin XL. Andrx filed the suit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, alleging that GlaxoSmithKline’s 150 milligram dose of extended-release Wellbutrin violates its patent covering a once-a-day form of bupropion hydrochloride, […]

A Delaware District Court ruled that Pfizer can exclusively sell Lipitor until 2011 after finding that Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd.’s generic version of Lipitor infringes on two Pfizer patents. Ranbaxy failed to prove Pfizer’s patents were invalid or unenforceable so Pfizer’s patents will remain in force until 2010 and 2011. Pfizer owns U.S. Patent Nos. 4,681,893 […]

I received a letter from a reader asking about the current status of the reexamination request on Pfizer’s Viagra (sildenafil citrate) patent (U.S. Pat. No. 6,469,012). I always appreciate hearing from readers and don’t mind trying to answer questions (when I can) so I reviewed the file history. The proceedings are now merged (consolidated into […]

A US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) upheld a ruling which blocked sales of Ranbaxy’s generic alternative to Pfizer Inc’s Accupril blood pressure drug (Quinapril HCl), a generic equivalent of Pfizer’s (Parke Davis) anti-hypertensive agent Accupril Tablets. [Pfizer, Inc. and Warner-Lambert Company, LLC, v. Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc., Ranbaxy Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and […]

The accused infringers, AWH Corp., et al., have petitioned for review of one part of the en banc ruling on claim construction in the Phillips case. (I hardly can write a sentence without using Latin). Now that all the fanfare over the Federal Circuit’s consideration of that case, and over the 33 amici that weighed […]

In Invitrogen Corporation v. Clontech Laboratories, Inc., Fed. Cir. 04-1039, -1040 (November 18, 2005), the CAFC vacated an invalidity judgment and the district court’s conception ruling based on anticipation by § 102(g)(2) prior art where the inventors could not appreciate the discovery they made. Invitrogen appealed from a decision by the United States District Court […]

No, this post is not about the NFL or NBA, but if I’d titled it the Probabilistics Of Reverse Payment Hatch-Waxman Settlements, then you would have stopped before reading this far. Suits for antitrust relief based on settlements, in which pharmaceutical patent owners settled and paid makers of generics to delay entering the market, recently […]

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to review a case relating to subject matter issues under 35 U.S.C. §101 for a patent that allegedly claims “laws of nature, natural phenomena, and abstract ideas” in Laboratory Corp. of America v. Metabolite Laboratories, U.S., No. 04-607, 10/31/05. Review was granted only with respect to question 3 in […]