Tagged: Patent rules (NJ patent rules NY patent rules PA patent rules)

In Fennec v. Cipla, the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey recently granted Fennec Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s (“Fennec”) motion to amend the Joint Claim Construction and Prehearing Statement to add constructions of two disputed terms that were consistent with the relevant patent’s express language. Fennec is a Hatch-Waxman litigation involving several patents covering Fennec’s Pedmark® product. Pursuant to Local Patent Rule 4.3, the parties are required to file a Joint Claim Construction and Prehearing Statement (“JCCPS”) that contains “[e]ach party’s proposed construction of each disputed term” and is filed within 30 days after the exchange of preliminary claim constructions and 45 days before the parties opening claim construction briefs are due. Amendments to the JCCPS require a motion demonstrating good cause under Local Patent Rule 3.7. One month after the parties submitted the JCCPS, Fennec informed defendants Cipla Limited and Cipla USA, Inc. (collectively, “Cipla”) that Fennec wanted to amend the proposed construction of certain claim terms to mirror the definitions of those terms in the patent. The parties met and conferred regarding the issue, and after reaching an impasse, Fennec filed its motion for leave to amend. The court granted Fennec’s motion, finding that it was timely, supported by good cause, and Cipla would not be unduly prejudiced. The court found...