Court Rejects Edwards' Patent Infringement Claims Against Meril

Judge Gilliam of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California granted Meril’s summary judgment motion of non-infringement with respect to all patent infringement claims filed against Meril by Edwards Lifesciences Corporation and Edwards Lifesciences, LLC against Meril’s Myval transcatheter heart valve. The Court rejected Edwards’ argument that the safe harbor exemption of 35 U.S.C. § 271(e)(1) did not apply because Meril’s activities were allegedly for a commercial purpose. The Court determined that Meril’s activities were all reasonably related to developing information for submission to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and fell squarely within the safe harbor regardless of the purported purpose of those activities. The Court therefore concluded that Meril did not infringe Edwards’ patents. Fenwick represented Meril in this action, and the team included litigation partners David Hadden and Melanie Mayer and associate Chieh Tung.