A Blog About Intellectual Property Litigation and the District of Delaware


Entries for date: March 2024

Illustration of e-mails heading towards Delaware counsels' inboxes as trial ramps up.
Illustration of e-mails heading towards Delaware counsels' inboxes as trial ramps up. AI-Generated, displayed with permission

We here at IP/DE are all practicing attorneys. We try to keep up with around one post per day, but sometimes we have to hang up the gone fishin' sign.

This is one of those times. We have a two-week-long patent trial starting next week, two simultaneous one-week trials shortly thereafter, and we're also spinning up on pretrial disclosures for yet another after that. It's funny how they seem to come all at once.

In short, it's time to call it for now. Assuming we survive—see you soon!

Goodbye, 93-page joint claim construction brief
Goodbye, 93-page joint claim construction brief AI-Generated, displayed with permission

Judge Andrews' form scheduling order for patent cases requires a joint claim chart. In that chart, in addition to listing the constructions, the Court requires the parties to explain why the parties are seeking construction of each term:

The Joint Claim Construction Chart should include an explanation of why resolution of the dispute makes a difference.

Judge Andrews added this requirement in early 2023. I haven't seen much activity on his dockets related to it—until last week.

In Belden Canada ULC v. CommScope, Inc., C.A. No. 22-782-RGA (D. Del.), the parties filed a joint claim construction chart. The chart included 21 terms and, each time, the parties …

Pills
HalGatewood.com, Unsplash

This week, Judge Bryson issued his findings of fact and conclusions of law following trial in Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc., v. Tolmar, Inc., C.A. No. 21-1784-WCB (D. Del. Feb. 26, 2024), and ANDA action. The opinion is long and thorough, and I thought the section on enablement was worth noting.

The patent at issue covers a "dosing regimen" for giving an anti-psychotic drug "to a psychiatric patient in need of treatment for psychotic disorder." According to the method, two loading doses of the drug are given, and then a maintenance dose is given between 21 and 38 days later (a "17-day window").

Defendant argued that the patent was not enabled, first because a person of …