Abbott Laboratories v. Apotex, Inc.

455 F. Supp. 2d 831, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 76971, 2006 WL 2884317
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Illinois
DecidedOctober 6, 2006
Docket97 C 7515
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 455 F. Supp. 2d 831 (Abbott Laboratories v. Apotex, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Abbott Laboratories v. Apotex, Inc., 455 F. Supp. 2d 831, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 76971, 2006 WL 2884317 (N.D. Ill. 2006).

Opinion

OPINION

RICHARD A. POSNER, Circuit Judge, sitting by designation.

In 1997, Abbott Laboratories filed this suit for patent infringement against TorPharm, Inc., a manufacturer of generic pharmaceutical drugs, and affiliates of TorPharm, notably Apotex, Inc., its parent. (TorPharm has since been absorbed into its parent, so I have dropped it from the caption and throughout this opinion refer to TorPharm as Apotex.) The district judge initially assigned to the case granted summary judgment in favor of Abbott on both validity and infringement. 156 F.Supp.2d 738 (N.D.Ill.2001). The Federal Circuit affirmed the ruling on validity but remanded for a trial on infringement. 300 F.3d 1367 (Fed.Cir.2002). I was designated to conduct the trial (28 U.S.C. *833 § 291(b)) — a bench trial, because Abbott was seeking only equitable relief. Indeed, it could not seek damages, because Apotex had not yet begun to market its generic substitute for Abbott’s product. At the conclusion of the trial, I held that Apotex had infringed, Abbott Laboratories v. TorPharm, Inc., 309 F.Supp.2d 1043 (N.D.Ill.2004), and after considering further submissions from the parties, dealing with relief, I issued an injunction, No. 97 C 7515 (N.D.Ill. Mar. 31, 2004), which the Federal Circuit affirmed. 122 Fed.Appx. 511 (Fed.Cir.2005). The case is back before me on a motion by Abbott to rule that Apotex has violated the injunction. When an equity case ends in a permanent injunction, the trial court, with or without an explicit reservation of jurisdiction, retains jurisdiction to enforce the injunction, as by contempt proceedings. McCall-Bey v. Franzen, 777 F.2d 1178, 1183 (7th Cir.1985); see also Riverdale Cotton Mills v. Alabama & Georgia Mfg. Co., 198 U.S. 188, 195, 25 S.Ct. 629, 49 L.Ed. 1008 (1905). Necessarily, therefore, the judge who issues an injunction has the authority to interpret it if a dispute arises over its scope, In re China Peak Resort, 847 F.2d 570, 571-72 (9th Cir.1988), vacated on other grounds under the name California State Bd. of Equalization v. Sierra Summit, Inc., 490 U.S. 844, 109 S.Ct. 2228, 104 L.Ed.2d 910 (1989); Wilson v. Alexander, 276 F. 875, 881 (5th Cir.1921) — and indeed is in a better position than anyone else to do so. Sobering Corp. v. Illinois Antibiotics Co., 62 F.3d 903, 908 (7th Cir.1995); In re Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific R.R., 860 F.2d 267, 272 (7th Cir.1988). But the issue here is not the meaning of the injunction; the meaning is clear; the issue is whether the injunction has been violated. If it has been, even if in good faith, that is a civil contempt, McComb v. Jacksonville Paper Co., 336 U.S. 187, 191, 69 S.Ct. 497, 93 L.Ed. 599 (1949); Additive Controls & Measurement Systems, Inc. v. Flowdata, Inc., 154 F.3d 1345, 1353 (Fed.Cir.1998), and I can so rule without imposing monetary sanctions or imprisonment. Abbott is not requesting such sanctions at this time; it is content with a determination that Apotex has violated the injunction and with an extension (modification) of the injunction to eliminate any possible ambiguity about its reaching the new Apotex product.

A finding of contempt requires proof by clear and convincing evidence, e.g., Additive Controls & Measurement Systems, Inc. v. Flowdata, Inc., supra, 154 F.3d at 1355-56, Preemption Devices, Inc. v. Minnesota Mining & Mfg. Co., 803 F.2d 1170, 1172-73 (Fed.Cir.1986), a rule that is appropriate because of the summary character of contempt proceedings. See, e.g., KSM Fastening Systems, Inc. v. H.A. Jones Co., 776 F.2d 1522, 1524 (Fed.Cir.1985). That is the standard that will guide my inquiry.

The patent (actually two patents, but I will pretend they’re one because they don’t differ in any respect material to this opinion) is on a chemical called divalproex sodium, which Abbott sells under the trade name Depakote for the treatment of epilepsy and other ailments. The chemical is a complex of two molecules, one of sodium valproate and one of valproic acid. Although either sodium valproate or valproic acid would have all the desired therapeutic properties of the drug, combining them produces a crystalline solid that is easier to manufacture into pills than either of its constituents.

For reasons never adequately explained, Abbott’s patent is limited to divalproex sodium in the form of an oligomer consisting of about 4 to 6 units of divalproex sodium. Just as the sodium valproate and valproic acid molecules combine to form *834 the divalproex sodium complex, so two or more of these complexes might join together to form a larger structure, such as a crystal, which might consist of millions or billions of identical units, whether atoms, molecules, or looser complexes. A polymer is an assemblage of a large number of smaller molecules. At the opposite extreme is a monomer, implying no discernible linkage with neighboring units of the same chemical. An oligomer, as the name implies (cf.oligopoly), is an assemblage of several rather than, as in the case of a polymer, many identical units.

In the infringement trial, Abbott presented compelling evidence that Apotex’s product is indeed an oligomer, and therefore infringes; hence the injunction. Of course there would be no infringement if, as Apotex argued, Abbott’s product was not an oligomer; for then Abbott’s patent would be invalid. In the first round of this litigation, however, the Federal Circuit held unequivocally that Abbott’s divalproex sodium is indeed an oligomer. 300 F.3d at 1372, 1378. That was the law of the case when I tried the infringement claim; and it might seem that now, by virtue of the doctrine of collateral estoppel, it precludes Apotex from relitigating the issue, since the finding undergirds the final judgment enjoining it. But collateral estoppel precludes relitigation of an issue in a subsequent case, and the present proceeding, initiated by a motion filed in an existing case (Abbott’s infringement suit against TorPharm and Apotex), is not a subsequent case, and so it is the law of the case doctrine, rather than collateral estoppel, that limits relitigation. KSM Fastening Systems, Inc. v. H.A. Jones Co., supra, 776 F.2d at 1524, 1529.

The Federal Circuit in the first round of appeals made findings concerning Apotex’s product that strongly suggested that it was identical to Abbott’s.

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Related

Abbott Laboratories v. TorPharm, Inc.
503 F.3d 1372 (Federal Circuit, 2007)

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Bluebook (online)
455 F. Supp. 2d 831, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 76971, 2006 WL 2884317, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/abbott-laboratories-v-apotex-inc-ilnd-2006.