Federal Circuit Transfers $66 Million Patent-Arbitration Case

The appeal of a drug-patent dispute that allowed patent owner Alkermes PLC to keep $65.6 million in allegedly improper royalty payments belongs in the New York-based Second Circuit, the Federal Circuit ruled.

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has exclusive appellate jurisdiction over patent infringement cases. Nevertheless, Acorda Therapeutics Inc.'s appeal of an arbitration award allowing it to claw back only a fraction of the $82 million in royalties it paid Alkermes to license a patent after it expired “is not within our jurisdiction,” wrote Judge Richard G. Taranto in a precedential opinion issued Friday by the ...