Background:

• Medexus and its co-plaintiffs sued Accord Healthcare and Intas Pharmaceuticals for infringing Canadian Patent No. 2659662, which covers concentrated methotrexate solutions, particularly used for treating inflammatory autoimmune diseases with parenterally administered medication.
• Medac, the patent holder, manufactures Metoject® pre-filled syringes, and Medexus has the license to market these products in Canada. Accord received Health Canada approval for similar methotrexate products, leading to the lawsuit.

Legal Issues:

• The plaintiffs alleged that Accord’s products infringed their patent claims, while Accord contested the patent's validity, asserting that the claims were obvious, anticipated, insufficiently disclosed, overbroad, or ambiguous.
• The determinative issue became the patent's obviousness, although aspects of anticipation, ambiguity, utility, insufficiency, and overbreadth were also considered.

Court's Analysis and Decision:

• The court found the patent's claims to be invalid for obviousness. Although Accord conceded that their products would infringe the claims if valid, the court did not need to proceed with infringement analysis due to the invalidity finding.
• The court also addressed the construction of the patent claims and the common general knowledge and expertise of the person skilled in the art, which was relevant for assessing the patent's validity.

Outcome:

• The court ruled the patent claims invalid due to obviousness, rendering Accord’s alleged infringement moot.
• The decision emphasized the importance of the inventive concept in patent claims and the need for the claimed invention to be non-obvious to a person skilled in the relevant art at the patent application’s priority date.
• The Court has not ruled on costs.