Sanofi-Aventis U.S. LLC, et al. v. Eli Lilly and Company, C.A. No. 14-113 – RGA-MPT , April 27, 2015

Andrews, J.  The court previously entered a Markman opinion on January 20, 2015. Declarations by experts were submitted on January 16, 2015 and an evidentiary hearing took place on January 23, 2015 regarding how a POSA would understand the disputed terms.

The relevant period for claim construction is the effective filing date, in this case June 18, 2002. The court construes the terms “polysorbate,” “polysorbate 20,” and “polysorbate,”and “polysorbate 80.” For the first disputed term, plaintiff relies on Handbook of Pharmaceutical Excipients in the third edition, published in 2000, and defendant relies on the fourth edition, published in 2003 after the priority date.  The court adopts plaintiff’s proposed construction.  With respect to the other disputed terms, plaintiff relies on the 2002 USP-NF while the defendant relies on the 2014 USP-NF. The court adopts plaintiff’s proposed construction which would have been available at the relevant time period.