Dr. Jonathan Schuchardt, Partner at Dilworth IP will be presenting a free webinar entitled Worth the Candle and a South African Yellow Canary:  Will the Supreme Court Snuff de novo Review of Claim Construction inTeva Pharmaceuticals v. Sandoz? on Wednesday, December 10th from 1pm – 2pm EST.

Click Here to Register For the Presentation

About the Presentation
On October 15, 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Teva Pharmaceuticals v. Sandoz, a case that concerns the amount of deference the Federal Circuit must afford a district court’s construction of patent claims.

Teva, owner of patents on the multiple sclerosis drug Copaxone®, contends that claim construction is intertwined with fact finding, that Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 52(a) should apply to claim construction, and that a district court’s claim construction should only be set aside for clear error.  In short, the Federal Circuit’s long-standing practice of de novo review of claim construction—which was validated by the Supreme Court’s 1996 decision in Markman v. Westview Instruments and confirmed by the Federal Circuit (6-4) en banc in February 2014 in Lighting Ballast Control v. Philips Electronics—should be overruled.

Sandoz and other generic drug makers counter that Markman remains good law, that Rule 52(a) applies to fact finding outside the context of claim construction, that claim construction is a purely legal matter best left in the hands of a judge rather than a jury, that the current law promotes uniformity and predictability, and that the Federal Circuit correctly reviews claim construction de novo.

Which side will prevail?  Who won the oral argument?  Which justices will reverse their position almost two decades post-Markman?

We’ll review important background decisions, analyze the briefs, dissect the justices’ questions, and speculate about how the Supreme Court will rule.  Join us—it should be “worth the candle”!

 

Dilworth IP is an intellectual property and business law firm providing legal services in the areas of patent and trademark prosecution, opinions, agreements and litigation in the chemical, biotech, pharmaceutical, medical device, material science, consumer products, electronics, software, and semiconductor industries. We’ve been in the lab. Whether your invention is a controlled-release pharmaceutical, a fuel cell, or a new polyolefin catalyst, our attorneys will speak your language and listen well. We’ll quickly grasp nuances of your complex technology and capture the IP protection you deserve. To learn more about the firm, please visit www.dilworthip.com.