Intellectual Property Law

Judge Stark: Collateral Estoppel Applied to Claim Construction in Biovail

By Karen E. Keller, Andrew A. Lundgren et al.

Judge Stark recently issued a claim construction memorandum opinion in Biovail Laboratories International SRL v. Intelgenx Corp., C.A. No. 09-605-LPS (D. Del. Dec. 27, 2010), construing two claims.

Both claim constructions were determined based on prior cases involving the same patent. The plaintiff, Biovail, has litigated this patent three times previuosly, and in the last case it failed to show infringement due in part to a construction of "free of stabilizer." Now, Biovail attempted to get around that construction by offering a definition of "stabilizer" by itself. The Court determined that collateral estoppel prevents Biovail from offering a definition of "stabilizer" that contradicts the previously litigated definition of "free of stabilizer," and held Biovail to the prior construction. Id. at 5-8.

The Court also addressed a second term, "dissolution profile," and again tracked the logic of one of the prior cases (although it treated it only as persuasive authority). Id. at 8-11.

Biovail Laboratories International SRL v. Intelgenx Corp., C.A. No. 09-605-LPS (D. Del. Dec. 27, 2010).

Full post as published by Delaware IP Law Blog on January 14, 2011 (boomark / email).