IP: Generic Manufacturers Win In The Supreme Court

The Supreme Court overruled the Federal Circuit, ruling that generic manufacturers can use counterclaims to force corrections of patent use codes.

This spring the Supreme Court seems to have made it easier for generic drug manufacturers to contest the reach of patent protection for brand name drugs. In Caraco Pharmaceutical Labs, Ltd. v. Novo Nordisk, the Supreme Court ruled that a congressionally-created counterclaim allows generic manufacturers to challenge the exact uses a drug patent covers. Generic manufacturers can use the counterclaim in cases where a patent holder asserts infringement in response to an application to manufacture a generic version of a brand-name drug (i.e., Abbreviated New Drug Application or ANDA).