Case: Patents/Obviousness (Fed. Cir.)

The Federal Circuit reversed, vacated, and remanded the decision of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board that claims of Eye Therapies LLC’s patent that teaches a method to reduce eye redness using a low-concentration dose of brimonidine are unpatentable as obvious over prior art, in an inter partes review by Slayback Pharma LLC. The court reversed the board’s construction of the phrase “consistent essentially of” and vacated its conclusion that all claims of the patent would have been obvious over prior art.