HOUSTON and CHICAGO, December 29, 2014 – A Morgan Lewis litigation team secured a significant victory on behalf of Repros Therapeutics, Inc., a development stage biopharmaceutical company, when a federal judge in Texas issued a definitive ruling finding correct inventorship for two Repros patents, thus confirming the company the sole and rightful owner.
A New York urologist and fertility specialist had made numerous statements, including to the news media, that he was a co-inventor of the Androxal® patents, U.S. Patent Nos. 7,759,360 (the “’360 patent”) and U.S. Patent No. 7,737,185 (the “’185 patent”), and had contributed to their conception. Calling the doctor’s claims of co-inventorship “strained to the point of absurdity,” a judge for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas found he had “contributed nothing to the actual invention” of the ’360 patent. Judge Vanessa Gilmore also found “an absence of material facts to support a finding of co-inventorship” of the ’185 patent.
Morgan Lewis Litigation partner Winn Carter and Litigation and Intellectual Property partner David Clough, Ph.D., led the representation of Repros in the lawsuit. Additional support was provided by Litigation partner Craig Stanfield and associate Ryan McBeth. Intellectual Property associates John Campbell, Ph.D. and Christopher Cabral, Ph.D contributed to the effort in addition to Litigation and Intellectual Property associate Nick Floyd.