Lipitor Australia - Unusual Grounds Invalidate Enantiomer Patent But Basic Patent Blocks Until 2012

(Ranbaxy Australia Pty Ltd v Warner-Lambert Company LLC(No 2) [2006] FCA 1787 (20 December 2006))

The first-instance judgment in the Australian part of the global Lipitor patent dispute was handed down earlier today (20 December 2006). Click here to go to the judgment.

In essence, as in many other countries, Ranbaxy challenged only the construction (and therefore infringement) of the Basic patent, and lost.

Interestingly, though, having dropped the novelty and inventive step arguments at trial, Ranbaxy still managed to invalidate the Enantiomer patent based on two grounds which are rarely successful: False Suggestion and lack of Utility.

Ranbaxy did not convince the Court that the patent was invalid on another unusual ground (which is peculiar to Australia) – lack of Manner of Manufacture for failure to meet the threshold requirement of disclosing an invention. However, Young J took up the opportunity to provide further guidance on this complicated lacuna of Australian