The Medicines Co. v. Mylan Inc., No. 11 C 1285, Slip Op. (N.D. Ill. Jun. 28, 2017) (St. Eve, J.).
Judge St. Eve granted defendants’ motion to amend the Court’s Amended Final Judgment in light of a Federal Circuit opinion in the case, and denied plaintiff’s motion for a new trial in this ANDA patent dispute.
The Federal Circuit interpreted the term “efficient mixing” differently than the Court had. Based upon its construction, the Federal Circuit held that defendants did not infringe plaintiff’s patent claims and decided not to rule upon the parties’ invalidity issues because there was no need in light of the non-infringement determination.
The Court held that the mandate rule required that there be no further substantive proceedings in the case, for at least the following reasons:
- The Federal Circuit made no mention of further proceedings below, indicating that it believed none were necessary; and
- The Federal Circuit’s decision not to rule upon the validity issues “strongly” suggested that it felt no further substantive proceedings were necessary. If they were, the Federal Circuit would have also decided invalidity.