Hep C Patent Wars Update (Coast-To-Coast Edition): Gilead's Declaratory Case In Chief Is In -- And Meanwhile, Back In Delaware. . .

In the San Jose, California federal District courthouse, overnight, Gilead filed a motion for summary judgment -- and that is a sure sign that Gilead has completed its case in chief. Merck will also likely move for summary judgment -- of patent infringement. Then (grossly oversimplifying, and ignoring several intervening steps, here) -- after the jury trial is complete, there will be a bench trial (before the very able Judge Labson-Freeman, only) on several fine points of patent law and procedure. [Backgrounder here.] So we are likely still a week or more away from anything remotely final and reviewable, there.

In the mean time, overnight in the Delaware federal District courthouse, in essentially the same set of Hep C patent disputes -- the agreed time line to trial was extended. Several key discovery, deposition and other cutoff dates were stretched out. And thus one might reasonably infer that -- depending on the outcome of the ongoing patent trial on the West Coast -- the parties may yet settle out East, avoiding a need for additional trial prep, in Delaware. We shall see.

That's your Friday Merck litigation update.

I'll candidly confess to still being more than a little down in the mouth, post St. Padraich's -- about the prospect of additional/new Ebola viral transmission lines, inside Guinea. I applaud Merck for making vaccine stock available there (likely for free) -- but sure wish we could tamp out the human to human transmission of the virus, en todo -- throughout Africa. Over 11,300 people are dead and gone, due to this now-waning epidemic, Do keep all the people there in your meditations, this weekend. Onward, with a triathalete son training now, in the picturesque Smoky Mountains. . . smile.