This update provides short updates on judicial decisions, trends, and notable events in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware, traditionally one of the three busiest jurisdictions for intellectual property litigation.

In Orexigen Therapeutics, Inc. v. Actavis Laboratories FL, Inc., C.A. No. 15-451-RGA (D. Del. May 31, 2017), Judge Andrews denied the defendant’s request to add new non-infringement defenses raised for the first time in the pretrial order. In a prior opinion, the Court had found that by not including these non-infringement defenses in its responses to…

In Takeda Pharmaceuticals U.S.A., Inc. v. Hikma Pharmaceuticals PLC, C.A. No. 14-1268-SLR (D. Del. June 2, 2017), Judge Robinson denied the plaintiff’s request for additional discovery and agreed with the limited discovery plan suggested by the defendants. The Court had previously granted the plaintiff limited discovery consistent with its allegations that representatives of the defendants told…

In Omeros Corp. v. Par Sterile Products, LLC, C.A. No. 15-773-RGA (D. Del. June 6, 2017), Judge Andrews granted the plaintiff’s request to proceed with twelve claims across the six patents-in-suit. Judge Andrews noted that the plaintiff had agreed to drop four claims from one of the patents-in-suit in exchange for the defendants’ agreement to limit…

In SRI International, Inc. v. Cisco Systems, Inc., C.A. No. 13-1534-SLR (D. Del. May 25, 2017), Judge Robinson denied defendant Cisco Systems Inc.’s (“Cisco”) post-trial motions for judgment as a matter of law, new trial, remittitur, and to supplement the record, and granted plaintiff SRI International Inc.’s (“SRI”) post-trial motions for attorneys’ fees, enhanced damages, compulsory…

In UCB, Inc. v. Watson Laboratories, Inc., C.A. No. 14-1083-LPS-SRF (D. Del. May 19, 2017), Chief Judge Stark denied the defendants’ motion for reargument of the Court’s December 5, 2016 order, in which the Court denied the plaintiffs’ request for a stay, but held that the defendants were liable for the costs of litigation from that…

As a part of the Delaware state budget process for the new fiscal year, the General Assembly approved House Bill 279, which increases the realty transfer tax payable to the State of Delaware by an additional 1%. The effect is to increase the aggregate transfer tax due on the sale of real property in Delaware to…

On June 14, 2017, Governor John Carney signed into law a bill (H.B. 1) that bars Delaware employers and their agents from asking applicants about their compensation history.

Since it became effective on April 1, 2014, Section 204 of the Delaware General Corporation Law (the “DGCL”) has served its purpose by enabling corporations to retroactively cure defects in their corporate records and by allowing corporate practitioners to give clean legal opinions as to, among other things, a corporation’s capitalization. As the Delaware courts have…

Legislation proposing to amend the Delaware Limited Liability Act, the Delaware Revised Uniform Limited Partnership Act and the Delaware Revised Uniform Partnership Act has been introduced to the Delaware General Assembly.