Today, Mon., Apr. 16, 2012, in Eurand v. Mylan, No. 2011-1399, the Federal Circuit (Newman, O’Malley and Reyna) reversed a bench trial judgment that pharmaceutical patents would have been obvious because the district court improperly first found obviousness and then looked to secondary indicia to rebut that finding, which led to hindsight selection of secondary indicia to support the district court’s obviousness “hunch.”   The Court ruled that there is no burden-shifting when litigating obviousness – all evidence must be considered before assessing whether the patent challenger met its burden to prove obviousness by clear and convincing evidence.
Continue Reading Patent Alert: Federal Circuit rules no burden-shifting in obviousness determination (Eurand v. Mylan)