Source: http://patents.hdp.com/?cat=12
Timestamp: 2019-04-21 17:09:22+00:00

Document:
In Gruenthal GmbH v Alkem Laboratories Limited, [2017-1153, 2017-2048, 2017-2049, 2017-2050] (March 28, 2019), the Federal Circuit affirmed the district court’s judgment that U.S. Patent No. 7,994,364 is not invalid for obviousness or lack of utility, and that U.S. Patent No. 8,536,130 is not infringed.
With respect to infringement, because neither Hikma’s nor Actavis’s proposed label is indicated to treat polyneuropathic pain, and the case made by Grünenthal and Depomed for indirect infringement depended on the proposed label indications, the Federal Circuit agreed with the trial court that Hikma and Actavis do not induce infringement of or contributorily infringe claims 1 and 2 of the ’130 patent. The Federal Circuit said that the pertinent question is whether the proposed label instructs users to perform the patented method, and the Federal Circuit agreed that it did not.
On the obviousness question, the Federal Circuit found that defendants failed to show a reasonable expectation of success. The Federal Circuit said that the court did not clearly err in finding that a POSA would not have had a reasonable expectation of successfully producing Form A, as claimed in the ’364 patent, by using the methods outlined in Byrn on the compound disclosed in the ’737 patent (Form B). The Federal Circuit noted that because the record indicates that there was (1) no known or expected polymorphism of tapentadol; (2) no evidence that the synthesis of Example 25 results in any Form A; and (3) no guidance as to what particular solvents, temperatures, agitation rates, etc., were likely to result in Form A, Alkem failed to prove that a POSA would have reasonably expected a polymorph screening of the Form B disclosed in the ’737 patent to result in Form A.
The Federal Circuit also rejected the “obvious to try” arguments, noting that the patent owner identified many variables for screening, i.e., a “huge number of possible choices,” as opposed to a “finite number,” contemplated in KSR. The Federal Circuit reiterated that a conclusion of obviousness does not follow from merely varying all parameters or trying each of numerous possible choices until one possibly arrived at a successful result, where the prior art gave either no indication of which parameters were critical or no direction as to which of many possible choices is likely to be successful.
Finally, on the issue of utility, the Federal Circuit noted that a patent must have specific and substantial utility. The substantial requirement, also known as “practical utility,” is satisfied when the claimed invention has a significant and presently available benefit to the public. The specific requirement is satisfied when the invention is shown to provide a well-defined and particular benefit to the public. In other words, the Federal Circuit said, a patent has utility if the alleged invention is capable of providing some identifiable benefit presently available to the public.
For pharmaceutical patents, practical utility may be shown by evidence of “any pharmacological activity.” The Federal Circuit found the disclosure sufficient. The patent stated that the crystalline Form A according to the invention is used for the treatment of pain or the treatment of urinary incontinence. This was confirmed by the prior art and by expert testimony. The Federal Circuit concluded that the ’364 patent concretely discloses the practical benefit of Form A of tapentadol hydrochloride as an analgesic.
The Federal Circuit also rejected the argument that substantial utility must be shown by test results. While test results often support claims of utility in patents concerning pharmacological arts, such testing is not always required. All that is required is that the tests be reasonably indicative of the desired pharmacological response. The Federal Circuit said that the patent owner need not prove that Form A has superior stability over Form B for purposes of determining utility — the patent statute does not require that a patentable invention be superior to all prior devices, it is sufficient that Form A is shown to be stable at room temperature and useful for pain relief.
In Forest Laboratories, LLC v, Sigmapharm Laboratories LLC, [2017-2369, 2017-2370, 2017-2372, 2017-2373, 2017-2374, 2017-2375, 2017-2376, 2017-2389, 2017-2412, 2017-2436, 2017-2438, 2017-2440, 2017-2441]( March 14, 2019) the Federal Circuit vacated and remanded the district court’s validity determination, and we vacated and remanded the question of infringement under a corrected claim construction.
The district court construed claim 1 to be limited to buccal and sublingual formulations. Although claim 1 does not expressly refer to buccal or sublingual administration, the Federal Circuit noted that claims “must be read in view of the specification, of which they are a part.” The Federal Circuit held the district court properly construed claim 1 to be limited to buccal and sublingual formulations.
As to obviousness, the district court found Appellants had not established that there was a motivation to combine asenapine maleate into a sublingual or buccal form, and even if there were a motivation to combine, a skilled artisan would not have had a reasonable expectation that it would work. The Federal Circuit noted that an invention is not obvious simply because all of the claimed limitations were known in the prior art at the time of the invention. Instead, the question is whether there is a reason, suggestion, or motivation in the prior art that would lead one of ordinary skill in the art to combine the references, and that would also suggest a reasonable likelihood of success. The motivation can be found explicitly or implicitly in the prior art references themselves, in market forces, in design incentives, or in any need or problem known in the field of endeavor at the time of invention and addressed by the patent.
The Federal Circuit noted that the district court failed to make an express finding as to whether compliance concerns for patients with trouble swallowing would provide a motivation to combine, and remanded for the district court to address this question.
As to secondary considerations, the Federal Circuit found that the district court did not err in finding long felt need weighs in favor or non-obviousness. However, the Federal Circuit found that the district court did err in finding unexpected results, finding that the results were not surprising and unexpected, since one of ordinary skill in the art would not have expected differently.
On the issue of written description, the Federal Circuit held that the district court’s finding that the specification contains sufficient written description support for the claims was not clearly erroneous.
On the issue of infringement, the district court construed claim 4 to not cover the treatment of bipolar disorders. Because the district court erred in treating “excitation” as being limited to “excitation disorders,” we vacate its finding of non-infringement. We construe “excitation” to refer to a symptom and remand for the district court to assess infringement in light of this construction.
In Personal Web Technologies, LLC v. Apple, Inc., [2018-1599] (March 8, 2019), the Federal Circuit reversed the PTAB determination that claims 24, 32, 81, 82, and 86 of U.S. Patent No. 7,802,310 are unpatentable.
The ’310 patent explains that in conventional data processing systems, data items such as files are typically identified by their user-created alphanumeric name and/or pathname or location. If one device transfers a data item to a second device using just the name associated with the data item, it is possible that the data item already exists on the second device, and a duplicate of the data item will be created.
The Board found the claims obvious relying on Woodhill inherently disclosing a claim element. The Federal Circuit found that because the element does not necessarily exist in Woodhill, the Board’s reliance on inherency for that element in its obviousness analysis was improper.
In Amerigen Pharmaceuticals Limited v. UCB Pharma GmbH, [2017-2596] (January 11, 2019), the Federal Circuit claims affirmed the PTAB’s determination that claims 1–5 and 21–24 of U.S. Patent 6,858,650 on an antimuscarinic drug marketed as Toviaz® to treat urinary incontinence were not unpatentable as obvious.
The Federal Circuit noted that its review of a Board decision is limited. The Federal Circuit reviews the Board’s legal determinations de novo, and the Board’s factual findings underlying those determinations for substantial evidence. The Federal Circuit explained that a finding is supported by substantial evidence if a reasonable mind might accept the evidence as adequate to support the finding.
The Federal Circuit agreed that the Board did not legally err and that substantial evidence supports the Board’s findings. As to Amerigen’s argument that a person of ordinary skill would have been motivated to modify 5-HMT to increase its lipophilicity, the Federal Circuit said that a a reasonable fact finder could have weighed UCB’s expert testimony over Amerigen’s, and concluded that substantial evidence supported the Board’s finding that a person of ordinary skill would not have been motivated to modify 5-HMT to increase its lipophilicity.
As to Amerigen’s argument that increasing lipophilicity “in and of itself” (i.e., independent of bioavailability concerns) would have motivated a person of ordinary skill to modify 5-HMT, the Federal Circuit noted that Amerigen did not present this theory to the Board, and could point to no evidence in the record to support of it, and did not explain why a skilled artisan would modify a drug to increase its lipophilicity independent of bioavailability.
Any compound may look obvious once someone has made it and found it to be useful, but working backwards from that compound, with the benefit of hindsight, once one is aware of it does not render it obvious.
The Federal Circuit said it considered Amerigen’s remaining arguments, and not find them persuasive, and thus affirmed the Board’s decision.
In Realtime Data, LLC, v. Iancu, [2018-1154] (January 10, 2019), the Federal Circuit affirmed the PTAB’s determination that claims 1–4, 8, 14–17, 21, and 28 of U.S. Patent No. 6,597,812 on systems and methods for providing lossless data compression and decompression would have been obvious over the prior art.
Realtime made two primary arguments on appeal: (1) that the Board erred in its determination that a person of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine the teachings of O’Brien and Nelson; and (2) that the Board erred by failing to construe the “maintaining a dictionary” limitation and in finding that O’Brien disclosed the “maintaining a dictionary” limitation.
HP’s primary argument to the Board was that all of the elements of claims 1–4, 8, and 28 were disclosed in O’Brien, a single reference, and it relied on Nelson simply to demonstrate that a person of ordinary skill in the art would have understood that the string compression disclosed in O’Brien was, in fact, a type of dictionary encoder, the terminology used in the ’812 patent. HP alternatively argued that that Nelson disclosed at least some of the elements in the claims at issue. Because the Board agreed that all of the claim elements could be found in O’Brient alone, the the Board was not required to make any finding regarding a motivation to combine. Had the Board relied upon HP’s alternative argument, it would have been required to demonstrate a sufficient motivation to combine the two references.
On the issue of whether the Board erred in finding that O’Brien disclosed the “maintaining a dictionary” limitation in independent claim 1, Realtime argued that the Board erroneously failed to construe the term “maintaining a dictionary” to include the requirement that the dictionary be retained during the entirety of the data compression unless and until the number of entries in the dictionary exceeds a predetermined threshold, in which case the dictionary is reset. While the words of a claim are generally given their ordinary and customary meaning, a claim term is read not only in the context of the particular claim in which the disputed term appears, but in the context of the entire patent, including the specification. These claim construction principles are important even in an inter partes review proceeding like this one, in which the claims were properly given the “broadest reasonable interpretation” consistent with the specification.
The Federal Circuit said that the Board’s interpretation was supported by both the claim language itself and the specification. While the term “maintaining a dictionary” is not defined, claim 4 lends meaning to the phrase, and directly mimics the specification. Realtime argued that because the claim recited “comprising” the Board erred by limiting the definition of “maintaining a dictionary.” The Federal Circuit rejected, this argument pointing out that the word “comprising” does not mean that the claim can be read to require additional unstated elements, only that adding other elements to the device or method is not incompatible with the claim.
The Federal Circuit concluded that the Board did not err in concluding that the claims would have been obvious in view of a single reference, and that the Board did not err in finding that O’Brien disclosed the “maintaining a dictionary” limitation in independent claim 1, and therefore affirmed the Board.
The Board May Consider Non-Prior Art Evidence in Considering the Knowledge, Motivations, and Expectations of a PHOSITA Regarding the Prior Art.
In Yeda Research and Development Co., Ltd. v. Mylan Pharmaceuticals Inc., [2017-1594, 2017-1595, 2017-1596] (October 12, 2018) the Federal Circuit affirmed the Board’s determination that U.S. Patent Nos. 8,232,250, 8,399,413, and 8,969,302 unpatentable as obvious.
seek leave to file a surreply to substantively respond to Khan 2009.
patents and printed publications that the petitioner relies upon,” and “affidavits or declarations of supporting evidence and opinions.” As do the regulations. See 37 C.F.R. § 42.104(b).
In Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc., v. Sandoz Inc., [2017-1575] (October 12, 2018), the Federal Circuit affirmed the district court decision invalidating for obviousness all asserted claims of patents directed to COPAXONE® 40mg/mL, a product marketed for treatment of patients with relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis.
of the claims.” The Federal Circuit further found that Teva’s argument that the sufficiency terms were added during prosecution to overcome rejections overstated the intrinsic record. Accordingly the Federal Circuit found no error in the district court’s construction.
As to obviousness, Teva argued for the patentability of its claimed dosing regimen, the improved tolerability, reduced frequency of adverse effects, and the reduced severity of injection site reactions.
reducing adverse side effects and increasing patient adherence.
Teva contends that the unpredictable nature of the compound categorically precludes the obvious-to-try analysis employed by the district court. Again the Federal Circuit disagreed, noting obviousness was proven through human clinical studies establishing the safety, efficacy, and tolerability at doses and dose frequencies similar to the claimed regimen.
injection reactions from the claimed regimen compared to the prior art, but the Federal Circuit disagreed. Teva found fault with the district court’s reference to “common sense” in its reliance on expert testimony, and argued that the expert testimony was conclusory and unsupported by the prior art. The Federal Circuit found no error in what is essentially a credibility determination.
On reduced severity, the Federal Circuit again agreed with the district court that the evidence provided a reasonable expectation to those skilled in the art that reducing the number of injections per week may also reduce the severity of injection site reactions.

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