Moderna Wants Fed. Cir. Help to Avoid Covid Vaccine Patent Suits

Moderna Inc. subsidiary ModernaTX will ask the Federal Circuit at oral arguments Thursday to invalidate two patents it says could make its Covid-19 vaccine vulnerable to infringement suits.

The Patent Trial and Appeals Board upheld parts of Arbutus Biopharma Corp.'s U.S. Patent Nos. 9,364,435 and 8,058,069, on drug-delivery technology. Arbutus argues Moderna has no standing to appeal those decisions because Moderna hasn’t suffered any injury related to the patents.

Moderna will tell the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit that there is a substantial risk that Arbutus will sue, accusing various Moderna products of infringing the patents. ...