It was a whale of a week for Litigator of the Week nominations. No offense to our prior winners, but the top four results I had sitting in front of me this week would have had a pretty darn good chance of taking home the honors in what I’ll call a more normal week.
Our first runner-up can boast of having scored the largest defense judgment in patent litigation history. (Gulp. Did I really just name these guys a runners up?) Mark Perry and Wayne Barsky of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher scored a win at the Federal Circuit for clients Serono and Pfizer that brings an end to 10 years of litigation with rival Biogen. The Federal Circuit decision reinstates a jury finding that Biogen’s patent for a certain use of interferon-beta, a human protein that triggers the body to fight viral diseases, was anticipated in the prior art. The ruling wards off Biogen’s damages claim of more than $5.4 billion. That’s billion with a “B.”
