By: Ariel L. Atkinson

May you have a wonderful summer!

On January 20, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down the decision in Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc. v. Sandoz, Inc., ruling on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit’s standard for resolving factual matters, which relate to claim construction.

Prior to the Teva case, claim construction was considered to be a matter of law, and not a matter of fact. Because matters of law are reviewed de novo on appeal, the Federal Circuit could construe the claims in a manner completely different than the district court. Now with this new ruling, factual conclusions which are used as “extrinsic evidence” for claim construction must be reviewed for “clear error.” The standard of clear error gives substantial deference to the district court’s findings, and thus changes the landscape of patent litigation in several ways..–click here to read more—