Lower Court's Factual Finding Given Deference In "Close Case"

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed the district court's finding that a skilled artisan would have had no reasonable expectation of success in making the claimed invention. UCB, Inc., et al., v. Accord Healthcare, Inc., et al., Case Nos. 16-2610; -2683; -2685; -2698; -2710; 17-1001 (Fed. Cir., May 23, 2018) (Stoll, J) (Prost, CJ, dissenting). 

UCB owns a patent that covers lacosamide, an anti-epileptic drug, which treats epilepsy and other central nervous system disorders. UCB holds new drug applications that cover its lacosamide anti-epileptic drug approved by the US Food and Drug Administration and marketed under the tradename Vimpat^®. Several generic drug manufactures filed abbreviated new drug applications seeking approval to market generic versions of Vimpat^®. UCB sued the generic drug manufacturers under the Hatch-Waxman Act. The generic drug manufacturers stipulated to infringement but argued that the patent claims were invalid for