Patent Law

B+

By Gary Odom and Jordan Kuhn

Monday, an East Texas jury awarded $1.67 billion for infringing a single patent: 7,070,775, which Centocor and New York University jointly own. '775 claims an "antibody or antigen-binding fragment." The patent applies to an arthritis drug. Abbott was the infringing party. $1.17 billion was for lost profits, plus $504 million for reasonable royalty damages. Abbott continues to swear non-infringement. The infringing product, Humira, sold more than $4.5 billion in 2008, Abbott's top seller, accounting for 15% of its revenues last year. Centocor's competing arthritis drug is Remicade.

Full post as published by The Patent Prospector on July 01, 2009 (boomark / email).