The U.S. Patent Trials & Appeals Board (Board) recently issued an Order granting Celltrion’s motion to submit supplemental information in its IPR (2022-00578) against U.S. Pat. No. 8,580,264, owned by Chugai Seiyaku Kabushiki Kaisa, Genentech, Inc, and Hoffmann La Roche, Inc. As we previously reported, this is one of two instituted IPRs brought by Celltrion against tocilizumab-related patents.
The Patent Owners argued that the supplemental information was being used by Celltrion to impermissibly bolster deficiencies of its initial Petition; specifically, to “bolster” a claim construction and obviousness argument for a claim that was not instituted in the IPR. While the Board prohibits bolstering, it stated that in this case the supplemental information being submitted by Celltrion will be useful in clarifying data that are cited in the IPR Petition. The Board also stated that the supplemental information is not being used to add or change grounds of unpatentability or evidence underlying the basis of the Petition.
Stay tuned to our PTAB Tracker for further updates on this IPR.