Intellectual Property Litigation Beyond Delaware

Morris Nichols has long brought or defended patent and trade secret cases for its clients around the country.  Morris Nichols recently obtained a major victory for Pfizer in a patent infringement case brought by Synthon IP in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.  Following a six-day jury trial, Pfizer received a verdict that it does not infringe Synthon IP’s patent covering a process for making amlodipine, the active ingredient in Norvasc®, the world’s best-selling drug for treating hypertension and angina.  The jury also found Synthon IP’s patent invalid on multiple grounds.  In August 2005, Morris Nichols clinched a victory for Pfizer with the Federal Circuit affirmance of the judgment of the District of New Jersey in Hatch-Waxman litigation against Par Pharmaceutical. Morris Nichols represented Pfizer at the bench trial in 2004, leading to a judgment that two patents on the world's leading glaucoma medication were valid, enforceable and infringed.  In Data General v. IBM, Morris Nichols successfully argued a four-day Markman hearing resulting in a favorable decision in the highly complex field of computer operating system software, and leading shortly thereafter to a successful settlement.