Opinion ID: 809417
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The Catarci Reference

Text: The Catarci reference is a case report entitled “Ergotamine-Induced Headache Can Be Sustained By Sumatriptan Daily Intake.” Catarci describes a single patient who developed ergotamine-induced headaches and subsequently replaced ergotamine with daily administration of sumatriptan. Sumatriptan effectively alleviated the patient’s daily migraines but did not relieve her constant mild headache. Catarci discloses that the patient was subsequently taken off of sumatriptan and NSAIDs were “prescribed both on a daily basis and when required.” Catarci discloses that treating the patient’s acute migraine attacks with either NSAID or sumatriptan was not beneficial. Instead the patient resumed taking a daily dose of sumatriptan in addition to acupuncture and successfully treated acute migraines with additional sumatriptan. Finally, Catarci concludes that acupuncture is beneficial “in treating drug-induced daily headache.” Pozen, 800 F. Supp. 2d at 814 (internal citations and quotations omitted). Appellants argue that Catarci shows a concomitant administration of sumatriptan and naproxen was used to treat migraines as evidenced by the patient’s prescription of a daily NSAID as a prophylactic with sumatriptan used as needed. POZEN INC v. PAR PHARMA 20 The district court did not clearly err in finding that Catarci does not teach a combination of sumatriptan and naproxen provided migraine relief. Rather, Catarci concludes that the only effective treatment for this patient was sumatriptan and acupuncture. The district court determined that Catarci discourages combining sumatriptan and naproxen to achieve the claimed efficacy benefits, teaching away from the invention. Id.; see In re Gurley, 27 F.3d 551, 553 (Fed. Cir. 1994) (A reference teaches away when “a person of ordinary skill, upon reading the reference, would be discouraged from following the path set out in the reference, or would be led in a direction divergent from the path that was taken by the applicant.”); see also Spectralytics, Inc. v. Cordis Corp., 649 F.3d 1336, 1343 (Fed. Cir. 2011) (explaining that a jury could find that prior art taught away from one solution because all prior art taught a different solution). For the reasons given by the district court, we agree that the Catarci reference does not render the ’499 and ’458 patents obvious.