Federal Circuit Highlights the Importance of Separating Claim Construction and Infringement Analysis When Dealing with After-Arising Technology

In the case of Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation v. Torrent Pharma Inc., the Federal Circuit ruled on January 10, 2025, reversing a lower court's decision that deemed Novartis' patent invalid due to inadequate written description. However, it upheld the original court's determination that the patent claims lacked proof of invalidity concerning enablement and obviousness in light of prior art. The court stressed the importance of analyzing patent claims separately from the accused product and asserted that after-arising technologies do not need to be explicitly detailed in the patent specification to maintain validity.

"It is only after the claims have been construed without reference to the accused device that the claims, as so construed, are applied to the accused device to determine infringement."

Read at Intellectual Property Law Blog