Supreme Court: Should Appeal Give Deference To Lower Courts On Claim Construction?

On October 15, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in Teva Pharmaceuticals USA Inc., et al. v. Sandoz Inc., et al., case number 13-854. At issue is the level of deference that the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ("the Federal Circuit") should give to a lower court's patent claim construction. Based on questions and comments from the justices, the Supreme Court appears divided on this issue.

Case History

Sandoz sought approval to sell a multiple sclerosis drug similar to Teva's patented Copaxone®. The active ingredient of Copaxone® is "copolymer-1," which is recited in terms of "average molecular weight" in Teva's patents at issue.1 The district court was therefore required to construe the term "molecular weight." There are multiple accepted methods for calculating average...