Eli Lilly & Co. has petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to review a ruling by the Federal Circuit regarding their patent for Gemzar®, a cancer treatment. The ruling by the Federal Circuit states that Gemzar® was invalid for double patenting by a new “bright-line rule,” which Lilly argues was wrongly applied. The bright-line rule “nulls a second patent's claim to what is not the same as or an obvious variant of a previously claimed invention,” according to Law 360. Lilly states that the application of the bright-line rule improperly transformed the doctrine of double patenting and that a review is needed to set this doctrine right and prevent “the harm caused by the sudden distortion of this once stable area of law.” Lilly is represented by Finnegan.
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