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Law360 (January 5, 2021, 2:53 PM EST) -- The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has prompted a federal judge to push back the start of a jury trial in Delaware federal court over allegations that a pharmaceutical company's low-testosterone drug infringes patents held by a rival.
U.S. Circuit Judge William C. Bryson on Dec. 28 cancelled a pretrial conference scheduled for Friday and a jury trial set for early February over allegations by Lipocine Inc. that Clarus Therapeutics Inc.'s product Jatenzo infringes the asserted claims of three of its patents, according to the order.
"The pretrial conference and jury trial will be rescheduled once it becomes clear when jury trials will resume in the District of Delaware," wrote Judge Bryson, who is sitting by designation in Delaware's district court.
The judge allowed other aspects of the case that can be conducted via telephone to continue, including a Jan. 15 hearing on Clarus' bid for summary judgment in the case, according to the order.
Lipocine initiated the case in April 2019, alleging that Clarus infringed the asserted claims of five of its patents, according to court documents. The two companies in February agreed to dismiss the infringement claims concerning two of the patents, leaving three in the case.
Jatenzo is designed to replace testosterone in adult males who have either a deficiency or absence of endogenous testosterone, according to a proposed joint pretrial order filed by the two companies in December.
Clarus plans to argue in the trial that the asserted claims of Lipocine's patents are invalid either because they are obvious, because they lack a written description or because they are not enabled, according to the proposed joint pretrial order.
Lipocine is asking the court to order Clarus to pay an unspecified amount in damages and attorney fees and costs and to bar it from selling Jatenzo either domestically or internationally, according to the proposed joint pretrial order.
Counsel for the parties could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
The patents in suit are U.S. Patent Numbers 9,034,858, 9,205,057 and 9,757,390.
Lipocine is represented by Gregory R. Booker, W. Chad Shear, Kelly A. Del Dotto, Grayson P. Sundermeir and Megan A. Chacon of Fish & Richardson PC.
Clarus is represented by Jack B. Blumenfeld and Brian P. Egan of Morris Nichols Arsht & Tunnell LLP and Robert F. Green, Christopher T. Griffith, Caryn C. Borg-Breen, Ann K. Kotze and Benjamin D. White of Green Griffith & Borg-Breen LLP.
The case is Lipocine Inc. v. Clarus Therapeutics Inc., case number 1:19-cv-00622, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware.
--Editing by Alyssa Miller.
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