Chief Judge Gregory Sleet recently denied a generic pharmaceutical company’s request for leave to move for summary judgment before a Rule 16(b) conference in an ANDA case. The defendant generic manufacturer sought leave for early summary judgment because the thirty-month stay was set to expire in the coming months and because statements made by the plaintiff’s CEO and counsel supposedly confirmed that defendant’s ANDA product did not have a limitation required in every claim of the patent-in-suit. See Endo Pharms. Inc. v. Mylan Techs. Inc., C.A. No. 11-220-GMS, Order at 1-2 n.1 (D. Del. May 3, 2013).
Judge Sleet, however, found that “summary judgment briefing would be wasteful and premature at this stage.” Judge Sleet accepted three arguments against summary judgment proffered by the plaintiff. First, the plaintiff argued that because it had no opportunity to conduct fact or expert discovery, it would respond to a summary judgment motion with a Rule 56(d) declaration. Second, the plaintiff argued that a supposed limitation of the claims of the patent-in-suit was not actually present in the claims and that claim construction would be necessary to determine what was claimed. Finally, the plaintiff argued that even if there were no literal infringement, it was entitled to assert infringement under the doctrine of equivalents, which would require both discovery and claim construction. Accepting all three of these arguments, Judge Sleet found the “summary judgment request to be inappropriate at this juncture.” Id.
Endo Pharms. Inc. v. Mylan Techs. Inc., C.A. No. 11-220-GMS, Order (D. Del. May 3, 2013).
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