LAWFUEL – Legal News Network – On August 2, 2006, United States District Judge William Bassler entered a judgment on behalf of Morgan Lewis clients Daiichi Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. and Daiichi Sankyo Inc. (collectively, Daiichi), finding, in a lengthy 51-page opinion, that defendants Apotex Inc. and Apotex Corp. (Apotex) would infringe Daiichi’s U.S. Patent No. 5,401,741 (the ‘741 patent) if Apotex were permitted to launch a generic version of Daiichi’s patented Floxin Otic medicine. Floxin Otic is the trade name for ofloxacin otic solution 0.3%, which is an ear drop used to treat ear infections including otitis media and otitis externa (commonly known as swimmer’s ear.) In his opinion, Judge Bassler rejected all of Apotex’s defenses of invalidity and unenforceability, and adopted all of the reasoning submitted by the Morgan Lewis team. This case is a significant pharmaceutical patent litigation win prosecuted under the Hatch-Waxman Act.
The case was tried before Judge Bassler in November 2005 over three weeks in federal district court in Newark by Morgan Lewis IP and Litigation partners Brian Murphy and David Leichtman. The trial team included Morgan Lewis IP and Litigation associates Laura Livaccari, Dan Murphy, Oren Langer, and Sandhya Kidd, Leza Di Bella and paralegals Michelle Rodriguez and Eric Norberg. Others, including Tokyo-based IP partner Robert Hollingshead also assisted with the case.
