Merus Announces the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit Denies Regeneron's Petition to Rehear the Panel's Decision Affirming Merus' Inequitable Conduct Claim Against Regeneron
UTRECHT, The Netherlands, Dec. 27, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Merus N.V. (MRUS), a clinical-stage immuno-oncology company developing innovative bispecific antibody therapeutics (Biclonics®), today announced that the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit denied Regeneron Pharmaceutical Inc.`s ("Regeneron") request for a rehearing en banc to reconsider its decision affirming that Regeneron engaged in inequitable conduct before the United States Patent and Trademark Office while prosecuting U.S. Patent No. 8,502,018 (`018 patent), entitled "Methods of Modifying Eukaryotic Cells."
"The decision by the full Federal Circuit, declining further review of Regeneron`s inequitable conduct, validates the thorough opinions issued by the trial court and Federal Circuit panel," said Ton Logtenberg, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Merus. "With this order and the strength of Merus` Biclonics® technology, Merus believes it is well-positioned as an innovator in developing bispecific antibody therapeutics to address significant unmet medical needs."
In March 2014, Regeneron filed a complaint against Merus alleging that it infringed one or more claims in the `018 patent. Merus filed counterclaims seeking, among other things, a declaratory judgment that Merus did not infringe the `018 patent, that the `018 patent was invalid and a declaratory judgment of unenforceability of the `018 patent on the basis that the patent was procured by inequitable conduct. Merus prevailed at the trial court on all three counterclaims. Regeneron stipulated to non-infringement and invalidity of the patent following the district court`s decision on claim construction. And after a trial in June 2015, the trial court concluded that Regeneron`s agents who applied for the patent made misleading statements to the United States Patent Office when obtaining the `018 patent, and that Regeneron committed inequitable conduct. On July 27, 2017, the Federal Circuit affirmed, concluding that Regeneron made "false" assertions, relied on a "misleading presentation," and withheld material information from the United States Patent Office, and further, that Regeneron`s "litigation misconduct" "obfuscated its prosecution misconduct." On December 26, 2017, the full Federal Circuit denied Regeneron`s request to rehear the matter.
Je zou toch zeggen dat Regeneron een keer de handdoek in de ring gooit :).
fc