Supreme Court of the United States · Official docket →

Accord Healthcare, Inc., et al. v. UCB, Inc., et al.

Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, No. 2016-2610, 2016-2683, 2016-2685, 2016-2698, 2016-2710, 2017-1001 · judgment May 23, 2018

Certiorari denied · November 19, 2018

Pre-decision estimate: 5% cert probability (95% interval 3%–8%)

Before the decision, modestly above the 4.1% base rate. The model weighted this up for a circuit split argued in the petition, a Federal Circuit decision below, and a business petitioner, and down for a business respondent.

Question presented

Did the Federal Circuit commit error in holding that a patent claim to an obvious modification of a prior art compound was not invalid as obvious under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) because the prior art compound would not have been selected as a “lead compound” that was “most promising to modify in order to improve upon its activity and obtain a compound with better activity?

Counsel of record

For petitioner
Richard G. Greco
Richard G. Greco PC

For respondent
Adam R. Gahtan
Fenwick & West, LLP

Case

Subject area
Economic Activity (estimated from the questions presented, in the Supreme Court Database’s categories)

Conference history
Distributed for 1 conference

Amicus briefs
1 cert-stage

Order
Order list, November 19, 2018 · Certiorari denied

Proceedings

Nov 19 2018
Petition DENIED.
Nov 08 2018
Brief amicus curiae of Association for Accessible Medicine filed.
Oct 31 2018
DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 11/16/2018.
Oct 18 2018
Waiver of right of respondents UCB, Inc., et al. to respond filed.
Oct 03 2018
Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due November 8, 2018)