Torrent Pharma. Ltd. V. Daiichi Sankyo, Inc., No. 16 C 2988, 3956 & 4876, Slip Op. (N.D. Ill. Jul. 25, 2016) (Pallmeyer, J.).

Judge Pallmeyer granted declaratory judgment defendants’ Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b) motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction in this ANDA patent litigation involving Benicar®, a drug for treating hypertension.

As an initial matter, defendants (collectively “Daiichi”) did not waive its personal jurisdiction challenge by consenting to jurisdiction in a prior suit in the Northern District of Illinois involving the same drug, but a different plaintiff.  Daiichi would have waived jurisdictional challenges if it had brought suit in the Northern District of Illinois.

Plaintiff Torrent’s specific jurisdiction allegations were not sufficiently focused upon Illinois.  By securing a patent and listing it in the Orange Book, Daiichi was not specifically targeting Illinois so as to create personal jurisdiction.  The Court also noted that internationally domiciled US patentees were not immune from suit so long as they did not enforce their patents because the patent long-arm statute – 35 U.S.C. § 293 – creates personal jurisdiction over every foreign patentee in the Eastern District of Virginia.