Seasonique Patent Invalidity Ruling Affirmed; Generics Already on Market, Including Teva’s

In a nonprecedential per curiam order, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit May 21 affirmed without comment a lower court ruling that found that Teva’s patent on its branded birth control product Seasonique (levonorgestrel/ethinyl estradiol) was invalid as obvious (Teva Womens Health Inc. v. Lupin Ltd.).

The appeals court affirmed a June 2012 ruling from Judge Peter G. Sheridan of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, in which he found that Teva’s U.S. Patent No. 7,320,969 (the ‘969 patent) on the Teva Women’s Health Inc. drug was obvious as a matter ...