In the largest patent verdict in U.S. history, on June 29 a federal jury in Marshall, Texas, awarded a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary $1.67 billion in damages against J&J rival Abbott Laboratories. The award represents more than two-thirds of the $2.2 billion J&J sought.
Everything about the litigation was outsize. The two blockbuster arthritis drugs at the heart of the dispute, Abbott’s Humira and J&J’s Remicade, had nearly $10 billion in combined sales last year. J&J alleged in its complaint, filed in April 2007, that Abbott used patented antibodies in Humira that were developed by New York University and a J&J subsidiary, and licensed exclusively to J&J.
