Balm for Gilead: Unclean Hands Render Patents Unenforceable

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed a district court finding of unenforceability, concluding that a patent owner’s unclean hands can render patents unenforceable based on a materiality standard of conduct that had an “immediate and necessary relation to . . . the matter in litigation,” which included conduct with the “objective potential” to affect the litigation. Gilead Sciences, Inc. v. Merck & Co., Inc. et al., Case No. 16-23102; -2615 (Fed. Cir., Apr. 25, 2018) (Taranto, J).