Roche Products, Inc. v. Bolar Pharmaceutical Co., Inc. case brief

Roche Products, Inc. v. Bolar Pharmaceutical Co., Inc. case brief summary
733 F.2d 858 (1984)

CASE SYNOPSIS

Plaintiff appealed from a judgment of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, which held that plaintiff's pharmaceutical patent was not infringed by defendant.

CASE FACTS
Plaintiff pharmaceutical company sued defendant, a manufacturer of generic drugs, for patent infringement. Plaintiff sought to enjoin defendant from taking, during the life of a patent, the statutory and regulatory steps necessary to market, after the patent expired, a drug equivalent to the patented drug. The trial court held that plaintiff's patent was not infringed by such action.


DISCUSSION

• On appeal, the court reversed since the court could not construe the experimental use rule so broadly to allow a violation of patent law in the guise of scientific inquiry when that inquiry had definite, cognizable, and not insubstantial commercial purposes. 
• The court remanded since the application of historic equity principles was in the first instance for the trial court.

CONCLUSION
The court reversed the trial court's finding that plaintiff's pharmaceutical patent was not infringed, because the court could not construe the experimental use rule so broadly to allow a violation of patent law in the guise of scientific inquiry when that inquiry had cognizable commercial purposes.

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