INSIGHTS
Client Alerts & Publications
The Supreme Court Takes Up “Skinny Labels” and the Fantasy World Where Generics Don’t Compete
The Federal Circuit’s recent decisions have shifted the standards for induced infringement, now considering not just a generic drug's label, but also its marketing practices. This has led to a Supreme Court inquiry on whether a fully carved-out generic label can still encourage infringement.
Section 112 Is the New OTDP — Has Biotech’s Least Favorite Thorn Been Upstaged?
Section 112 has decisively replaced obviousness-type double patenting (OTDP) as the primary litigation and PTAB vulnerability for ambitious biotech claims, with courts now demanding concrete possession and true enablement of claimed inventions rather than broad, suggestive genus disclosures. Claiming strategy in biotech must focus on disclosure-first breadth, ensuring that specifications clearly exemplify subgenera and teach across the scope of claims to meet strict enablement and written description requirements.
After-Arising Technology Takes Center Stage at the Supreme Court (With Another Cameo by Thomas Edison)
We’ve been talking about In re Entresto and MSN Pharmaceuticals’ petition for certiorari. The crux of the case remains the same: if you wonder whether a patent can be undone by technology that didn’t exist when it was filed, MSN’s reply brief—and its spirited ode to Edison’s bamboo filament lightbulb—just made your day.
Novartis Opposes Supreme Court Petition Targeting “After-Developed” Technology in Patent Validity Analyses, Arguing No Split at the Federal Circuit
Recently, we posted about MSN Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s petition for certiorari and the several amicus briefs in support of that petition. On November 7, Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp. filed its brief in opposition. The case squarely presents the long-simmering doctrinal tension over how patent law treats “after-developed” or “after‑arising” technology—innovations not known at a patent’s filing but later alleged to fall within a claim’s scope.
Supreme Court Petition Targets “After-Developed” Technology in Patent Validity—and a Deep Split at the Federal Circuit
A closely watched petition for certiorari asks the Supreme Court to resolve a fundamental question in patent law: may courts consider after-developed technology when assessing validity under Section 112’s written description and enablement requirements? The petition arises from the Federal Circuit’s decision in In re Entresto, which sustained validity while accepting a broad infringement construction that captured a later-invented chemical “complex.” The outcome could reshape patent drafting, litigation strategy, and freedom-to-operate assessments across life sciences, high tech, and beyond.