Law360 is providing free access to its coronavirus coverage to make sure all members of the legal community have accurate information in this time of uncertainty and change. Use the form below to sign up for any of our weekly newsletters. Signing up for any of our section newsletters will opt you in to the weekly Coronavirus briefing.
Sign up for our Intellectual Property newsletter
You must correct or enter the following before you can sign up:
Thank You!
Law360 (April 28, 2020, 10:17 PM EDT) -- The Southern District of New York's chief judge on Tuesday pushed back a high-profile drug patent trial from May to July after lawyers for Ferring Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Serenity Pharmaceuticals LLC expressed concerns about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the proceedings.
U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon scrawled a short note on the top of the joint letter the two sides submitted on Friday, saying the trial initially set for late May would be adjourned until July 6.
"The court will schedule a telephone conference in the near future to discuss trial logistics," the judge said.
In their joint letter, Ferring counsel from Gibbons PC and Womble Bond Dickinson (US) LLP and lawyers for Serenity from Skiermont Derby LLP had asked Judge McMahon to reconsider her recent directive that "we are going to proceed" with a bench trial starting May 26.
"The parties are prepared and wish to move forward with trial in this matter as soon as it is feasibly possible, but current travel and business restrictions make the logistics of doing so on May 26 uncertain," they said.
According to recent Ferring filings, at least four of the company's planned trial witnesses reside in Europe.
"Even putting aside travel restrictions for the non-U.S. witnesses, many of the jurisdictions in which counsel and witnesses reside remain under stay-at-home orders and/or directives through at least May 15, which are likely to be extended further," the lawyers' letter said.
Another witness, who hails from Chicago, is known to be under a stay-at-home order through May 30, the letter said. New York's travel and business curbs are in effect until at least May 15.
Unless the sides settle, the dispute is headed for trial after the Switzerland-based Ferring sued Serenity in 2017 seeking to invalidate three patents related to its anti-diuretic desmopressin patent. Serenity hit Ferring with counterclaims, accusing Ferring of infringing its patents for the drug Nocdurna, which treats frequent nighttime urination.
Neither side responded on Tuesday to a request for comment.
The patents-in-suit are U.S. Patent Nos. 7,405,203 and 7,579,321.
Ferring is represented by Mary Bourke, Kristen Cramer, Dana Severance, Daniel Attaway, Nicholas Verna and John Cox of Womble Bond Dickinson and William Deni of Gibbons PC.
Serenity is represented by Paul Skiermont, Sarah Spires, Jaime Olin and Sheetal Patel of Skiermont Derby LLP.
The case is Ferring Pharmaceuticals Inc. et al. v. Serenity Pharmaceuticals LLC et al., case number 1:17-cv-09922, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
--Editing by Bruce Goldman.
For a reprint of this article, please contact reprints@law360.com.
