Laurastar ./. Innosteam: Register ban upheld, but what is next?

Case No. S2018_003 | Decision of 24 August 2018 | ‘chaudière-miniature’

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Laurastar and Innosteam are litigating about ownership of two PCT applications, i.e. WO 2018/006994 A1 and WO 2018/036653 A1; see the EPO Register here and here. The patent applications are about devices and methods for producing instant steam (WO’994) and instant hot water (WO’653), for use e.g. in devices for ironing.

We have reported on this Blog here about the provisional register ban that had been issued without hearing the defendant beforehand, and the subsequent hearing.

Laurastar logo

The main disagreement between the parties relates to the relevant time period in which the inventions had been made: While Laurastar alleges that the inventions had been made by Mr. Mantegazzi and Mr. Pasche when they had been employed by Laurastar, defendant submits that the inventions had only been made thereafter, i.e. when Mr. Mantegazzi and Mr. Pasche have been employed by the defendant.

Plaintiff inter alia relied on the following document that was undisputedly created by Mr. Pasche during his employment with the plaintiff:

act. 1_8, created by M. Pasche while employed by the plaintiff

In a nutshell, the present decision maintains the register ban while main proceedings are pending, to sort out the ownership dispute. And this might turn out to be a tricky exercise: The decision provisionally holds that the subject-matter of

  • claims 1, 5, 7, 11, 20 and 21 of WO’653; and
  • claims 1, 5, 7, 8, 9, 11 (first and second option), 22 and 23 of WO’994

had likely already been invented by the two inventors when they had been employed by the plaintiff, in fulfilment of their contractual duties. Rights in these aspects would reside with the plaintiff; Art. 332(1) CO. The two PCT applications may thus have to be partially assigned to the plaintiff (Art. 29(1) PatA) — but only in main proceedings. This co-ownership would be kind of a forced marriage. If it doesn’t work out in practice and the parties get divorced, it will be hard to cut out and reshuffle the respective shares in the inventions.

Now, how to proceed with the two PCT applications in the meantime? They need to be nationalized in early 2019, and a decision in main proceedings is unlikely to be final by then. The decision unmistakably holds that it will be up to the plaintiff to decide how to best protect his interests in this respect:

On ne saurait manifestement condamner la défenderesse à entrer dans les phases nationales dans tous les Etats contractants du PCT, car cela pourrait se révéler prohibitif. Il appartiendra à la demanderesse de décider comment sauvegarder ses intérêts une fois que le délai d’entrée dans les phases nationales approchera de sa fin, ce qui semble être le 5 janvier 2019 (pour WO’994) respectivement le 24 février 2019 (pour WO’653).

Loosely translated:

It is clearly not possible to order the defendant to enter the national phases in all the contracting states of the PCT, as this could be prohibitive. It will be up to the plaintiff to decide how to safeguard its interests once the deadline for entry into the national phases approaches its end, which appears to be 5 January 2019 (for WO’994) and 24 February 2019 (for WO’653), respectively.

Not to be missed

I am very much looking forward to see how this finally unfolds. The immanent time pressure requires some creativity to ensure that no rights in at least the most relevant designated states are lost.

On the procedural side, it is worthwile to note how the FPC dealt with a document that had been submitted by the defendant that contained additional technical data. The defendant requested that this information shall be considered by the court, but not being handed over to the plaintiff. The court held that either a redacted copy shall be submitted that can be provided to the plaintiff, or the defendant shall agree to have the unredacted version provided to the plaintiff’s attorney and patent attorney, for attorney’s-eyes-only and under threat of sanctions according to Art. 292 CC. The defendant chose to not agree to any of these options. Thus, the court did not take this additional document into account at all.

UPDATE 10 October 2018:

No appeal has been filed; the decision in summary proceedings has become final; main proceedings pending.

Reported by Leila MÜLLER and Martin WILMING

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Case No. S2018_003 | Decision of 24 August 2018 | ‘chaudière-miniature’

Laurastar SA
./.
Innosteam Swiss SA

Panel of Judges:

  • Dr. Mark SCHWEIZER
  • Dr. Ralph SCHLOSSER
  • Dr. Giovanni GERVASIO

Judge-rapporteur:

  • Dr. Giovanni GERVASIO

Court Clerk:

  • Agnieszka TABERSKA

Representative(s) of Plaintiff:

  • Dr. Ivan CHERPILLOD (Bourgeouis)
  • André ROLAND (Roland), assisting in patent matters

Representative(s) of Defendant:

  • Jacy PILLONEL (BCP)

DECISION IN FULL

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WO 2018/006994 A1

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WO 2018/036653 A1

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No more ‘shell games’: Register ban imposed ex-parte in an ownership dispute

Case No. S2017_003 ¦ Decision of 31 January 2017 ¦ “Mesures superprovisionnelles; interdiction de transfer, suspension IPI

The background of this case is a cooperation with an unhappy ending, at least concerning the resulting IP. The plaintiff (A) and one of the defendants (B) had signed a confidentiality agreement on 12 July 2015 for the purpose of a joint development. Two employees of A had then worked on this project and exchanged their respective results by Email. These results were then shared with B in working meetings later on, and a specific solution was sent to B by Email on 10 September 2015. B then filed a Swiss patent application on its own on 25 November 2015. That would be enough to blow most cooperations, but it even got worse: B informed A on 11 October 2016 that the patent application had been assigned to D. And on 29 November 2016, A was informed that the patent application had been assigned to C.

A was not amused and requested that a register ban be ordered ex parte to avoid withdrawal / abandonment and to suspend further prosecution; and that B, C and D be ordered to abstain from any actions towards this end. These requests were indeed granted inasmuch as the Swiss patent application is concerned. On the contrary, the request was held inadmissible with respect to related applications unspecifically referred to in the requests. Likewise, a request for a register ban at the EPO was held inadmissible; this has to be effected in accordance with Art. 61 and R. 14 EPC.

The decision (again) outlines the essential criteria to be dealt with in patent (application) ownership disputes:

  1. Who actually has invented the disputed technology?
  2. How has the plaintiff obtained the right to be granted a patent for this technology?
  3. How has the defendant / patent applicant been informed about this technology?
  4. How is the technology reflected in the patent application at stake?

The decision holds that these criteria have been met by prima facie evidence: The plaintiff (1.) had identified the inventors; (2.) how he obtained the right to be granted a patent (i.e. by virtue of Art. 332 CO as employer); (3.) how this information had been conveyed to B (see timeline above); and (4.) how this is reflected in the patent application under dispute: Apparently, Fig. 1 of the patent application reflects all the essential elements which also corresponds to the wording of claim 1.

The multiple assignments underlined the risk of a not easily reparable harm for the plaintiff. On the contrary, the defendants are not substantially harmed by the ex parte order. As to the urgency of the matter, the decision holds that the plaintiff had acted with sufficient diligence on 18 January 2017 after having been notified of the (second) assignment on 29 November 2016, i.e. seven weeks ago. Summary proceedings can still be concluded earlier than potential main proceedings which typically take one year.

On the other hand, the diligence required for the ex parte order is less clear to me. The FPC held in an earlier case that seven weeks (what a coincidence!) were too long for a plaintiff to wait — rather, one should act ‘within one or two weeks in any event’; see this Blog here. The devil may be in the (yet unknown) detail.

As to the technology concerned, the bone of contention is a latch for a watch band with a folding clasp which can carry a biometric insert.

[…] fermoir pour bracelet de montre comportant une boucle déployante permettant de loger un insert biometrique […]

The Swiss patent application at stake has been filed only less than 18 months ago (25 November 2015); it is not yet published. We will learn more on or shortly after 25 May 2017.

And the parties? According to publicly available information, there are not too many companies in Switzerland working on exactly this topic. Actually, I could only spot a single fit I feel confident enough to share: Biowatch SA. See their promotional video from 36s onwards (embedded from Youtube):

Biowatch’s Matthias Vanoni said in an interview with welt.de on 24 February 2016 that they were developing a new latch for a watch band with a special fitting for the biometric module together with a cooperation partner, i.e. Oréade SA:

https://www.welt.de/wissenschaft/article152603723/Das-Venenmuster-als-besserer-Fingerabdruck.html
Welt.de (24.02.2016)

The hearing scheduled for March 29, 2017 will provide further insight, and the Swiss patent application will be published end of May 2017. Stay tuned!

UPDATE March 6, 2017:

The hearing scheduled for March 29, 2017 has just been canceled.

UPDATE May 31, 2017:

The patent application at stake has been published today. It’s CH 711 847 A2, see Swissreg. Registered applicant expectedly is Oréade Manufacture de boîtes SA.

UPDATE Oct 2, 2017:

The matter has apparently been settled by compromise; see Matthias Vanoni’s comment in the comments section below.

Reported by Martin WILMING

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Case No. S2017_003 ¦ Decision of 31 January 2017 ¦ “Mesures superprovisionnelles; interdiction de transfer, suspension IPI”

n/a

./.

1. n/a
2. n/a
3. n/a

Composition of the Board of the FPC:

  • Dr. Dieter BRÄNDLE
  • Frank SCHNYDER
  • Dr. Tobias BREMI

Court Clerk:

  • Susanne ANDERHALDEN

Representative(s) of Plaintiff:

  • Florian DUCOMMUN (HDC)

Representative(s) of Defendant (1):

DECISION IN FULL

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PATENT APPLICATION IN SUIT

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No ex parte ‘shot from the hip’ in an assignment action

Case No. S2017_002 ¦ Decision of 18 January 2017 ¦ “Abweisung Massnahmebegehren; internationale Zuständigkeit, mangelnde Glaubhaftmachung, Anspruch und Gefährdung”

This decision provides very early insight into a litigation with an apparently rather complex setup. The plaintiff had initiated main proceedings on January 11, 2017, inter alia alleging co-ownership of two patent families currently held by the defendant. Only two days later, the plaintiff requested ex parte interim measures, i.e. that the defendant be ordered to preserve the status quo of the patent families in suit (with respect to ownership, licenses, etc.), and that a ban be noted in the Swiss patent register to prevent any changes to the Swiss part of the already granted European patent.

Allegedly, an employee of the Swiss plaintiff has largely contributed to the subject invention(s), in a joint development together with the CEO of the defendant (a company domiciled in Sweden). Two patent families are at stake, with an already granted European patent in the first family. EPO prosecution is still pending in the second family, while patents have already been granted in the U.S., Japan and Russia.

First, the President holds that the FPC only has territorial jurisdiction for the Swiss part of the European patent at stake; Art. 1(2) IPRA, Art. 31 LugC, Art. 10 lit. b IPRA. Note that the patentee / defendant is domiciled in Sweden! The request has thus not been considered at all as far as it concerned foreign patent rights.

What remains is the Swiss part of the already granted European patent. Swiss law is applicable in this respect; Art. 110(1) IPRA. In general terms, the requested injunction and the order to a register authority would be possible in accordance with Art. 262 lit. a and c CPC. However, the President held that the plaintiff failed to show the three necessary elements, i.e.

  1. that the employee of the plaintiff has contributed to or made this invention (what exactly, when, where and how);
  2. how the defendant has been made aware of this invention (or parts thereof); and
  3. how the subject-matter claimed by the defendant actually corresponds to this invention.

The plaintiff apparently did not discuss how the contribution of its employee is reflected in the claims; see item iii, above. Co-ownership was thus held to be not established for this reason alone.

Moreover, the President notes that the plaintiff failed to show an actual risk that any of the acts to be prohibited might materialize. The request also failed for this reason.

The routine exercise: Who are the parties?

Admittedly, that’s been a tricky puzzle this time. The decision is anonymized beyond recognition. Almost. We could spot a single perfect fit:

As to the first patent family, “WO 222” likely is WO 2011/042058 A1 and the European patent “EP 333” with 37 claims likely is EP 2 485 864 B1 (opposed by Trumpf Werkzeugmaschinen GmbH + Co. KG); see EPO Register and Swissreg for further details.

The second patent family is based on “WO 555” — which likely is WO 2012/136262 A1. This family has granted patents in Japan (JP 5828953 B2), Russia (RU 2 594 921 C2) and the U.S. (US 9,469,338 B2); examination of EP 2 694 241 A1 is still pending; see EPO Register.

The sole inventor of both patent families is Magnus Norberg Ohlsson, CEO of Tomologic AB, a company domiciled in Sweden.

Bystronic Laser AG likely is the counterparty. It had introduced a new online service ByOptimizer in November 2014, explicitly referring to a

[…] newly developed cluster technology from the Swedish company Tomologic. The patented technology […].

The former product page is currently offline (checked on Feb 2, 2017).

It’s only an educated guess — but wouldn’t it be an incredible coincidence if the rivals were not Bystronic Laser AG and Tomologic AB? Let’s wait and see …

Reported by Ingo LUMMER and Martin WILMING

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Case No. S2017_002 ¦ Decision of 18 January 2017 ¦ “Abweisung Massnahmebegehren; internationale Zuständigkeit, mangelnde Glaubhaftmachung, Anspruch und Gefährdung”

n/a ./. n/a

Composition of the Board of the FPC:

  • Dr. Dieter BRÄNDLE

Court Clerk:

  • Susanne ANDERHALDEN

Representative(s) of Plaintiff:

Representative(s) of Defendant:

  • Dr. Simon HOLZER (MLL)
  • Esther BAUMGARTNER (MLL)
  • Martin TOLETI (Blum), assisting in patent matters

DECISION IN FULL

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A heated debate over heat exchangers

Case No. S2015_003 ¦ Decision of 05 August 2015 ¦ “Gutheissung vorsorgliche Massnahme”

This case is an assignment action of Marcel Riendeau against Zehnder Group International AG. The IP rights concerned are two European patent applications and the co-pending PCT applications, i.e.:

Back in 2009, the parties apparently entered into a cooperation based on a novel heat exchanger technology that had been invented by the plaintiff. A first patent application was filed in the name of Zehnder Verkaufs- und Verwaltungs AG — subject to final contracts to be concluded. This never happened. In the meantime, this application proceeded to grant as EP 2 618 090 B1; see the European Patent Register for any details. Interestingly, it has been assigned by Zehnder Group International AG to Westwind Ltd, the one-man business of Mr Riendeau. However, this assignment is already a story in itself: Apparently, Zehnder Verkaufs- und Verwaltungs AG first assigned the application to Marcel Riendeau with an agreement dated 5 May 2014. But later, it turned out that Zehnder Verkaufs- und Verwaltungs AG did not exist anymore at that date. Its legal successor was Zehnder Group International AG, the defendant on file.

At the technical side, the invention(s) pertain to heat exchanger elements schematically illustrated in the following figures. EP’834 and EP’836 explicitly recite polymer films being provided on the perforated plate element, while EP’090 holds that “[a]ccording to the inventions, the polymer is supplied as a dispersion”; see paragraph [0016].

The parties apparently also discussed the so-called extensions of the first patent. The importance to safeguard a filing date well before publication of the first application (EP’090) was apparently discussed, too. But the plaintiff did not trust the defendant to do so. Therefore, on 19 July 2013 he filed US 2013/269906 A1 on his own. Note that the two applications in suit were filed only later, i.e. 22 July 2013.

For the corresponding PCT applications WO’544 and WO’543 two additional inventors have been designated, i.e. defendant’s in-house patent attorney and the head of the R&D department.

This is only a rough overview of what appears to be a perfect mess. Interested in any further details? Plaintiff’s writ is available in its entirety from the EPO online files:

Download (PDF, 1.69MB)

Proceedings at the EPO are currently stayed on request of the plaintiff, in both cases.

In parallel main proceedings (O2015_009; no publication yet), plaintiff essentially requests that both patent families are to be assigned to him; and that the designations of the two additional inventors are to be withdrawn. As an interim measure, plaintiff essentially requested to impose a ban on defendant’s authority to dispose of the applications in suit.

Now, what did the defendant say? Interestingly, the decision holds that plaintiff’s detailed and well documented allegations remained essentially undisputed on the merits. The improper assignment of EP’090 did the rest to establish a certain risk / lack of due care if authority over the applications in suit remained with the defendant. Finally, the interim measures were held proportinate: defendant himself submitted that no transfer, granting of rights or amendments to the applications in suit was envisaged. However, no unconditional and binding declaration was submitted. Consequently, interim measures were granted as requested.

This decision in summary proceedings has already become final.

Reported by Martin WILMING

— BIBLIOGRAPHY —

Case No. S2015_003 ¦ Decision of 05 August 2015 ¦ “Gutheissung vorsorgliche Massnahme”

Marcel RIENDEAU ./. Zehnder Group International AG

Subject(s):

  • Assignment action / Interim measures

Board of Judges:

  • Dr. Dieter BRÄNDLE (President; Single Judge)
  • Susanne ANDERHALDEN (First Court Secretary)

Representative(s) of Plaintiff:

Representative(s) of Defendant:

— DECISION IN FULL  —

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— BE ON THE KNOW —

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Gilead ./. AbbVie: Court ban partially lifted

Case No. S2014_008 ¦ Decision of 04 February 2015 ¦ “Begründung Massnahmebegehren unter Bezugnahme auf Klagebegründung im ordentlichen Verfahren; unbedingtes Replikrecht im Massnahmeverfahren; Anordnung einer Verfügungsbeschränkung im Patentregister (Registersperre)”

This is further to an earlier post in this matter.

Gilead's Harvoni
Gilead’s Harvoni

In brief, both the plaintiff Gilead Pharmasset LLC and the defendant AbbVie Inc. had filed patent applications on a combination of sofosbuvir and ledipasvir (marketed by Gilead under the tradename Harvoni), and Gilead had lodged an assignment action against AbbVie in main proceedings (O2014_013).  A block of the patent register had been ordered without hearing the defendant beforehand, to prevent that the enforcement might be jeopardized.

In the meantime, the defendant was belatedly heard and the FPC now finally decided on the requested interim measures (Art. 265(2) CPC). And: The interim measures were upheld to a large extent, but examination and grant proceedings may now continue. Still, it will be highly interesting to see how the case will be decided on the merits in co-pending main proceedings.

However, also the present decision has some interesting procedural implications:

i)  SUBSTANTIATION BY REFERENCE TO WRIT

The plaintiff had filed the assignment action in main proceedings on the very same day as the request for interim measures. In order to avoid unnecessary repetition in the substantiation of the request for interim measures, the respective parts of the writ were incorporated by reference. The defendant argued that this was inadmissible. And indeed, the FPC held that global references to other documents are regularly not sufficient. But in the present matter, it was. The underlying facts in both proceedings are the same and the plaintiff’s allegations are thus evident. Under these circumstances, it would be an excessive formalism to insist on a complete repetition in summary proceedings.

ii)  UNCONDITIONAL RIGHT TO REPLY IN SUMMARY PROCEEDINGS

The defendant had filed his reply to the request for interim measures on December 22, 2014. The FPC then informed the parties that an exchange of further written submissions is dispensed with. In addition, the plaintiff was informed that any remarks on the defendant’s reply would have to be submitted in due course, and the FPC further held that remarks filed by no later than January 19, 2015 would be considered timely filed. Apparently, the plaintiff then filed very extensive remarks, along with two folders of exhibits. The defendant refrained from making any further remarks on the merits, but essentially argued that the new allegations were to be ignored by the court.

The FPC held that the plaintiff’s submission of January 2015 is to be considered as a submission made under the condition of the unconditional right to reply. With reference to the decision 4A_815/2014 (r. 3.2) of the Supreme Court, the FPC clarified that this decision has not ruled out submissions under the unconditional right to reply in summary proceedings, but rather only relativised its scope. Anyhow, the plaintiff’s submission was only considered inasmuch as it was occasioned by the defendant’s reply (analogous to BGE 4A_487/2014, r. 1.2.4).

iii)  BELATED SUBSTANTIATION OF A NOT EASILY REPARABLE HARM

Interim measures are ordered when the plaintiff credibly shows that a) a right to which he is entitled has been violated or a violation is anticipated; and the violation threatens to cause not easily reparable harm to the plaintiff (Art. 261(1) CPC). The plaintiff had argued in the initial request that three potential actions of the defendant could cause an irreparable harm, i.e. (1) an assignment of the patent applications to a third party; (2) the granting of rights (licences or pledge); and (3) changes to the contents of the applications (Art. 51 and 64 PatR).

However, the plaintiff was silent on a not easily reparable harm that could come along with a continuation of the examination and grant procedure as such. The FPC took note that the plaintiff presented arguments in this respect for the first time only in the submission of January 19, 2015. But the FPC held that this was belated and did not consider those arguments any further.

In sum, the FPC thus partially lifted the ban on AbbVie’s patent applications, and the examination and grant proceedings of CH 707 029 and CH 707 030 may now continue. As to the remaining potential actions (1)-(3) outlined above, the defendant basically accepted the request for interim measures: The defendant confirmed to the court that he did not even think of any of these actions. Thus, the FPC upheld the interim measures to that extent.

iv)  AMOUNT IN DISPUTE

The court fee depends on the amount in dispute. Contrary to Art. 221(1) lit. c / Art. 219 CPC the plaintiff did not indicate the amount in dispute for the summary proceedings. In main proceedings, the plaintiff estimated the amount in dispute to “exceeding CHF 1m”. The defendant estimated the amount in dispute (for the main proceedings) to “exceeding CHF 10m”. All this did not help much to figure out the actual amount in dispute in summary proceedings. However, the defendant had requested a security of CHF 5m in case the ban with respect to the examination and grant proceedings would have been upheld. The FPC took this as a sufficient indication of the amount in dispute and thus fixed it to CHF 5m (BGE 92 II 62, r. 3). This results in a court fee of CHF 30’000,– (which is moderate in view of the value in dispute; see CostR-PatC), provisionally borne by the plaintiff (still subject to the outcome in main proceedings).

Reported by Martin WILMING

— BIBLIOGRAPHY —

Case No. S2014_008 ¦ Decision of 04 February 2015 ¦ “Begründung Massnahmebegehren unter Bezugnahme auf Klagebegründung im ordentlichen Verfahren; unbedingtes Replikrecht im Massnahmeverfahren; Anordnung einer Verfügungsbeschränkung im Patentregister (Registersperre)”

Gilead Pharmasset LLC ./. AbbVie Inc.

Subject(s):

  • Interim measures without hearing the defendant
  • Interim measures
  • Transfer of patent application

Composition of the Board of the FPC:

  • Dr. iur. Dieter BRÄNDLE (President)
  • Lic. iur. Susanne ANDERHALDEN (First Court Secretary)

Representative(s) of Plaintiff:

Representative(s) of Defendant:

— FULL TEXT OF THE DECISION —

Download (PDF, 244KB)

Litigation on combination of sofosbuvir and ledipasvir reaches Switzerland

Gilead Pharmasset LLC ./. Abbvie Inc.

Case No. S2014_008 ¦ Decision of 28 October 2014 ¦ “Superprovisorische Anordnung einer Verfügungsbeschränkung im Patentregister (Registersperre)”

— THE DECISION IN A NUTSHELL —

Both Gilead Pharmasset LLC and AbbVie Inc. hold patent applications on the combination of the sofosbuvir and ledipasvir for the treatment of hepatitis C. This combination is marketed by Gilead under the tradename Harvoni™. Gilead has sued AbbVie for assignment of their Swiss patent applications. In first place, a block of the register for these patent application was ordered as an interim measure.

— THE DECISION IN MORE DETAIL —

This decision pertains to new pharmaceuticals for the treatment of hepatitis C.

1.  BACKGROUND

Undisputedly, sofosbuvir has been a breakthrough in the treatment of this widespread disease. It is a ribonucleotide analog inhibitor of the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase of hepatitis C virus (HCV).

Sofosbuvir
Sofosbuvir (PSI-7977)

Sofosbuvir causes chain termination by competing at the triphosphate level with natural nucleotides for incorporation into elongating RNA. The triphosphate serves as a defective substrate for the NS5B protein (which is the viral RNA polymerase), and thus acts as an inhibitor of viral RNA synthesis; see Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 2014 Jul; 58(7): 3636-45.

Way of acgtion of sofosbuvir
Way of action of sofosbuvir (by Anypodetos, via Wikimedia Commons); click on image to enlarge.

Sofosbuvir has received the FDA’s Breakthrough Therapy Designation and has been marketed since 2013. Compared to previous treatments, sofosbuvir-based regimens are reported to provide a higher cure rate, fewer side effects, and a two- to four-fold reduced duration of therapy.

In October 2014 a combination of sofosbuvir with the viral NS5A inhibitor ledipasvir was approved by the FDA.

Ledipasvir
Ledipasvir (GS-5885)

The combination of sofosbuvir and ledipasvir is marketed by Gilead under the tradename Harvoni™; see also the Harvoni™ patient information. It is reported to provide high cure rates in people infected with genotype 1 (the most common subtype in the U.S., Japan, and much of Europe).

Principal display panel of Harvoni™
Principal display panel of Harvoni™; click on image to enlarge.

Well, and here we are at the very core of this dispute: The rights in the invention of a combination of sofosbuvir and ledipasvir. Some indication of this issue is already contained in Thomson Reuters’ report to the WHO on the patent situation of sofosbuvir (see Patent 2, p. 16-17), the respective report on ledipasvir (see the Note in the Summary on p. 11) and newsfeeds such as e.g. Knowledge Ecology International or Biospace.

2.  WHO ACTUALLY INVENTED IT?

This question will be dealt with in co-pending main proceedings (O2014_013). Both parties had filed patent applications on this combination of drugs. The present decision only deals with a block on the register as an interim measure (see below). However, the plaintiff exhaustively argued on the merits of his rights in the invention, in order to get the block on the register issued. And, indeed, it was issued even without hearing the defendant beforehand.

The plaintiff essentially argued as follows:

As the legal successor of Gilead Sciences, Inc., Gilead Pharmasset LLC owns all rights and interest in this invention that is subject of patent applications (for the assignment see the request for a change under R. 92bis PCT and the corresponding notification issued by the WIPO). An outline of this patent family is shown below. Claim 3 of WO 2013/040492 A2 is directed to the combination of sofosbuvir (referred to as “compound 10”) and ledipasvir (referred to as “compound 6”).

Priority applications filed in the U.S.:
#1
Sep 16, 2011
61/535,885
#2
Nov 18, 2011
61/561,753
PCT application claiming these priorities:
filed
Sep 14, 2012
PCT/US2012/055621
pub’d
Mar 21, 2013
WO 2013/040492 A2

Gilead Sciences, Inc. had acquired Pharmasset LLC in January 2012, incl. the rights to sofosbuvir (PSI-7977). On the other hand, ledipasvir had been developed in-house at Gilead. Gilead’s first priority application had been filed on September 16, 2011 (at a time when a takeover bid for Pharmasset LLC had already been placed), and this application already included the combination of sofosbuvir and ledipasvir (GS-5885) for the treatment of HCV (in particular of genotype 1) for twelve weeks, with or without the further antiviral agent ribavirin, but in any case without interferon. Thus, the plaintiff had been in possession of the invention already on September 16, 2011.

The defendant’s patent applications are outlined below, in chronological order. The two Swiss patent applications that are litigated here are given in the last line. There are two series of applications, one with and one without the yet further antiviral agent ribavirin.

w ribavirin
w/o ribavirin
Priority applications filed in the U.S.:
#1
Oct 21, 2011
61/550,352
reverse phone lookup ,360″ href=”http://www.patentlitigation.ch/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/us_61_550_360.pdf” target=”_blank”>61/550,360
#2
Nov 21, 2011
61/562,181
61/562,176
#3
Jan 17, 2012
61/587,225
61/587,197
#4
Feb 17, 2012
61/600,276
61/600,468
#5
Apr 03, 2012
61/619,870
61/619,883
#6
Jun 06, 2012
61/656,251
61/656,253
#7
Oct 10, 2012
61/711,830
61/711,793
PCT applications claiming these priorities:
filed
Oct 19, 2012
PCT/US2012/061075
PCT/US2012/061085
pub’d
Apr 25, 2013
WO 2013/059630 A1
WO 2013/059638 A1
Nationalised in Switzerland:
nat’d
Jan 13, 2014
CH 707 029
CH 707 030

As can be seen, the defendant had filed the first priority application on October 21, 2011, i.e. only after the plaintiff’s first priority application of September 16, 2011. Ledipasvir as such is not referred to by the defendant in his first priority application, but rather only the identifier GS-5885. Neither the chemical structure is given, nor the specific combination of GS-5885 and sofosbuvir. The plaintiff points at two peculiarities in the subsequent time line of the defendant’s priority filings:

First, the plaintiff had mentioned the combination of GS-5885 and sofosbuvir for the first time in an investor phone conference on February 02, 2012. However, the structure of GS-5885 had not been made publicly available. About two weeks later, the fourth priority applications had been filed and disclose the specific combination of sofosbuvir and GS-5885 for the first time in the series of priority applications.

Second, only the sixth priority applications of the defendant (filed June 06, 2012) disclose the structure of ledipasvir / GS-5885. This is about six weeks after the plaintiff had made the structure of GS-5885 publicly available for the first time on April 18, 2012 at the 25th International Conference on Antiviral Research in Sapporo, Japan. The defendant does not rely on clinical data in the patent applications, but rather used computer models to predict the advantageous combinations of drugs.

3.  NOW, WHAT HAS BEEN DECIDED?

Both parties are domiciled in the U.S.; competency for interim measures is thus governed by Art. 10 IPRG. The requested interim measures aim to preserve the status quo for as long as the assignment suit has not yet been decided in co-pending main proceedings (O2014_013). In main proceedings, the courts of Switzerland have jurisdiction (Art. 109(1) IPRG; Art. 29 PatA). Moreover, the requested interim measures (block of the register) are to be executed in Switzerland. Competency of the FPC is thus given, and Swiss law is to be applied (Art. 110(1) IPRG).

Interim measures are ordered when the plaintiff credibly shows that a) a right to which he is entitled has been violated or a violation is anticipated; and the violation threatens to cause not easily reparable harm to the plaintiff (Art. 261(1) CPC). Prima facie evidence is sufficient. Further, a certain urgency must be given and the requested interim measures must be proportinate. The FPC held that all these prerequisites were fulfilled in the present matter. The block of the register was ordered without hearing the defendant beforehand, to prevent that the enforcement might be jeopardized.

It remains to be seen how the defendant defeats the allegations. The defendant will now belatedly be heard and the FPC will then finally decide on the requested interim measures (Art. 265(2) CPC).

Reported by Martin WILMING

— BIBLIOGRAPHY —

Case No. S2014_008 ¦ Decision of 28 October 2014 ¦ “Superprovisorische Anordnung einer Verfügungsbeschränkung im Patentregister (Registersperre)”

Gilead Pharmasset LLC ./. AbbVie Inc.

Subject(s):

  • Interim measures without hearing the defendant
  • Transfer of patent application

Composition of the Board of the FPC:

  • Dr. iur. Dieter BRÄNDLE (President)
  • Lic. iur. Susanne ANDERHALDEN (First Court Secretary)

Representative(s) of Plaintiff:

Representative(s) of Defendant:

  • none yet

— FULL TEXT OF THE DECISION —

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