{"id":274603,"date":"2025-06-05T09:11:34","date_gmt":"2025-06-05T09:11:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/uncategorized\/strict-standard-for-overriding-patent-lexicography-in-covid-vaccine-patent-battle\/"},"modified":"2025-06-05T09:11:34","modified_gmt":"2025-06-05T09:11:34","slug":"strict-standard-for-overriding-patent-lexicography-in-covid-vaccine-patent-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=274603","title":{"rendered":"Strict Standard for Overriding Patent Lexicography in COVID Vaccine Patent Battle"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>by Dennis Crouch<\/p>\n<p>In a decision that reinforces the controlling force of explicit patent definitions, the Federal Circuit affirmed a district court&#8217;s claim construction that effectively ended Alnylam Pharmaceuticals&#8217; patent infringement suit against Moderna over lipid nanoparticle technology used in COVID-19 vaccines. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cafc.uscourts.gov\/opinions-orders\/23-2357.OPINION.6-4-2025_2525006.pdf\"><i>Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. v. Moderna, Inc.<\/i>, No. 2023-2357 (Fed. Cir. June 4, 2025)<\/a>. Writing for a unanimous panel, Judge Taranto explained that when a patent specification clearly defines a claim term, the patentee faces a demanding standard to establish exceptions to that definition, even where the definition might exclude disclosed embodiments or seemingly conflict with other parts of the specification.<\/p>\n<p>The case centered on whether Alnylam&#8217;s patents covering cationic lipids for nucleic acid delivery were infringed by Moderna&#8217;s use of the SM-102 lipid in its SPIKEVAX COVID-19 vaccine. The dispute turned entirely on claim construction of the term &#8220;branched alkyl,&#8221; which the specification explicitly defined as requiring &#8220;one carbon atom in the group (1) is bound to at least three other carbon atoms and (2) is not a ring atom of a cyclic group&#8221; &#8220;[u]nless otherwise specified.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cdn.patentlyo.com\/media\/2025\/06\/unlessotherwisedefined.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-46320\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.patentlyo.com\/media\/2025\/06\/unlessotherwisedefined.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"134\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Alnylam argued this definition did not apply to claims covering &#8220;branching&#8221; at the &#8220;alpha position&#8221; adjacent to biodegradable groups, where the chemical structure would permit only two carbon-carbon bonds rather than three. The Federal Circuit rejected this argument, finding no clear indication in the intrinsic record that the claims &#8220;otherwise specified&#8221; a departure from the explicit definition.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cdn.patentlyo.com\/media\/2025\/06\/lipid.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-46321\" alt=\"\" width=\"1097\" height=\"474\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.patentlyo.com\/media\/2025\/06\/lipid.jpg\"\/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-46321\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.patentlyo.com\/media\/2025\/06\/lipid.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1097\" height=\"474\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Dennis Crouch In a decision that reinforces the controlling force of explicit patent definitions, the Federal Circuit affirmed a district court&#8217;s claim construction that effectively ended Alnylam Pharmaceuticals&#8217; patent infringement suit against Moderna over lipid nanoparticle technology used in COVID-19 vaccines. Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. v. Moderna, Inc., No. 2023-2357 (Fed. Cir. June 4, 2025). [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":274604,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[101518,101517],"tags":[2922,15043,101519,86503,11252,19737,1696,90703,21686],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-274603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-paid","category-patent","tag-battle","tag-covid","tag-lexicography","tag-overriding","tag-paid","tag-patent","tag-standard","tag-strict","tag-vaccine"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Strict Standard for Overriding Patent Lexicography in COVID Vaccine Patent Battle - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=274603\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Strict Standard for Overriding Patent Lexicography in COVID Vaccine Patent Battle - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"by Dennis Crouch In a decision that reinforces the controlling force of explicit patent definitions, the Federal Circuit affirmed a district court&#8217;s claim construction that effectively ended Alnylam Pharmaceuticals&#8217; patent infringement suit against Moderna over lipid nanoparticle technology used in COVID-19 vaccines. Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. v. Moderna, Inc., No. 2023-2357 (Fed. Cir. June 4, 2025). 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