Patent Law Practice Center

CAFC OKs JMOL When Expert Changes Testimony at Trial

Recently, the Federal Circuit issued a decision in Rembrandt Vision Technologies v. Johnson & Johnson Vision Care. The issue in the case primarily centered around whether the district court correctly granted judgment as a matter of law that J&J did not infringe claims of U.S. Patent No. 5, 712,327.

The technology at issue in the case related to contact lenses. Two important characteristics of a contact lens are its permeability to oxygen and the wettability of its surface. By the 1980s, both hard and soft contact lenses that were permeable to oxygen were well known, but these contact lens often lacked a highly wettable surface.

The contact lens claimed in the ‘327 patent had both a highly wettable surface and were permeable to oxygen. The patent disclosed a soft gas-permeable lens that contained an acrylic layer on the surface of the lens body. This acrylic layer increased the wettability and comfort of the lens.

(more…)