Last week, Magistrate Judge Jennifer Hall of the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware recommended denial of two motions to dismiss and denied a motion to sever in a case involving a novel induced infringement claim against a health insurance provider. See Amarin Pharma, Inc. v. Hikma Pharm. USA Inc., No. 20-1630-RGA-JLH, 2021 WL 3396199 (D. Del. Aug. 3, 2021) (“Amarin R. & R.”) (docket version); Amarin Pharma, Inc. v. Hikma Pharm. USA Inc., No. 20-1630-RGA-JLH, 2021 WL 3363496 (D. Del. Aug. 3, 2021) (“Amarin Mem. Order”) (docket version). The dispute relates to Hikma Pharmaceuticals USA Inc. and Hikma Pharmaceuticals PLC’s (collectively, “Hikma”) generic version of the plaintiffs’ VASCEPA® product (icosapent ethyl).  Hikma’s generic product has been on the market since November 2020. See Amarin R. & R., 2021 WL 3396199, at *3. The plaintiffs asserted three patents against Hikma and a health insurance company, Health Net, LLC (“Health Net”). Hikma and Health Net both moved to dismiss for failure to state a claim, and Health Net also moved to sever the claims against it from those against Hikma. Magistrate Judge Hall recommended that the motions to dismiss be denied, and she denied the motion to sever. Id. at *1; Amarin Mem. Order, 2021 WL 3363496, at *1.
Continue Reading Delaware Magistrate Judge: Novel Induced-Infringement Claim Against Health Insurance Provider Survives Dismissal

In a previous post, we reported that the PTAB’s Precedential Opinion Panel (POP) tackled issue joinder in Proppant Express Investments v. Oren TechsIPR2018-00914, Paper 24 at 2.

As background, in Proppant, the POP addressed the following issues:

  1. Under 35 U.S.C. § 315(c) may a petitioner be joined to a proceeding in which it is already a party?
  2. Does 35 U.S.C. § 315(c) permit joinder of new issues into an existing proceeding?
  3. Does the existence of a time bar under § 315(b), or any other relevant facts, have any impact on the first two questions?

The POP determined that § 315(c) “provides discretion to allow a petitioner to be joined to a proceeding in which it is already a party and provides discretion to allow joinder of new issues into an existing proceeding.”  IPR2018-00914, Paper 38, at 4.

In Facebook, Inc., v. Windy City Innovations, LLC, the Federal Circuit reversed the POP opinion.  953 F.3d 1313 (Fed. Cir. 2020) (the “Decision”).  Specifically, the court held that “[t]he clear and unambiguous text of § 315(c) does not authorize same-party joinder, and does not authorize the joinder of new issues.”  Decision at 1322. 
Continue Reading Federal Circuit Reverses PTAB’s Precedential Opinion Panel on Aspects of Joinder

IPR petitioners Proppant Express Investments, LLC and Proppant Express Solutions, LLC (collectively, “PropX”) have a pending instituted inter partes review (IPR) on certain claims of U.S. Patent No. 9,511,929 (“the ’929 patent”).  Unfortunately for PropX, it mistakenly grouped its arguments against one of the dependent claims—claim 4—into the wrong ground, which led the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (the “Board”) to deny institution of IPR of that claim, due to inadequate support.  IPR2017-02103, Paper 19 at 32, 34.  After institution, PropX sought to amend the petition to move claim 4 into the proper ground.  The Board denied PropX’s request because PropX was not diligent: despite Patent Owner’s (“Oren”) Preliminary Response pointing out PropX’s mistake, PropX failed to notice the mistake until after institution.  IPR2017-02103, Paper 22.
Continue Reading PTAB Holds that 35 U.S.C. § 315(c) Prevents Same-Party Joinder of Issues to An Instituted IPR