By Jiazhong (Jason) Luo, Ph.D. and Frederick R. Ball
Recently, the Supreme Court of the United States unanimously reversed the Federal Circuit in Hikma Pharmaceuticals USA Inc. v. Amarin Pharma, Inc., holding that Amarin failed to state a claim for active inducement of patent infringement under 35 U.S.C. § 271(b). The decision clarifies that the relevant inquiry is whether a defendant actively encouraged infringing use, not merely whether physicians could plausibly read the defendant’s statements related to a skinny label as instructions to infringe.