District court rules in favor of Finnegan client AbbVie

The Southern District of New York (Judge Paul A. Crotty) ruled in favor of Finnegan client AbbVie, in a declaratory judgment action against its licensor The Mathilda and Terence Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology Trust (“Kennedy”). AbbVie brought this action because Kennedy claimed AbbVie would owe royalties on certain sales of its drug Humira^®, despite AbbVie's assertion that the Kennedy patent at issue was invalid. Humira^®is used by hundreds of thousands of patients to treat diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn’s disease, and had revenues of more than $9 billion worldwide in 2012. After a four-day bench trial, the court held all of the claims of the Kennedy patent at issue were invalid for obviousness-type double-patenting. The court entered final judgment declaring all the claims at issue invalid, and declaring AbbVie the prevailing party and awarding costs. In a separate declaratory judgment case, the patents were invalidated by summary judgment both were affirmed on appeal.