Genentech Patent Invalidated Over Prior Art

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on January 10, 2020, affirmed the invalidation of Genentech’s patent directed to methods of purifying antibodies, finding that the process of chilling a composition to below room temperature could be found both obvious and anticipated by a process that purified that composition at room temperature. Genentech, Inc. v. Hospira, Inc., Fed. Cir., No. 18-1933, 1/10/20.

The majority of judges found that the “apparently simple solution” of lowering the temperature in the process of purifying antibodies was an obvious solution. Judge Newman dissented from the Court’s finding of anticipation and obviousness on the basis that the invention had actually solved a real world problem and that the majority's affirmance ignored the value the invention brought to the art.