Bayer Cropscience AG v. Dow Agrosciences LLC, 2016-1530

Decision Date01 March 2017
Docket Number2016-1623,2016-1530
PartiesBAYER CROPSCIENCE AG, BAYER CROPSCIENCE NV, Plaintiffs-Appellees v. DOW AGROSCIENCES LLC, MYCOGEN PLANT SCIENCE, INC., AGRIGENETICS, INC., DBA MYCOGEN SEEDS, LLC, PHYTOGEN SEED COMPANY, LLC, Defendants-Appellants
CourtU.S. Court of Appeals — Federal Circuit

NOTE: This disposition is nonprecedential.

Appeals from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in No. 2:12-cv-00047-RAJ-RJK, Judge Raymond Alvin Jackson.

CHRISTOPHER JAMES GASPAR, Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP, New York, NY, argued for plaintiffs-appellees. Also represented by RYAN HAGGLUND; ROBERT J. KOCH, MICHAEL D. NOLAN, STEPHANIE R. AMOROSO, EDWARD JOHN MAYLE, Washington, DC.

DAVID JASON LENDER, Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, New York, NY, argued for defendants-appellants. Also represented by ELIZABETH WEISWASSER, DAVID FITZMAURICE, ADAM BANKS; ALEX V. CHACHKES, PETER A. BICKS, ROBERT L. SILLS, JAMES STENGEL, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP, New York, NY; MARK S. DAVIES, KATHERINE M. KOPP, JEFFREY M. PROKOP, MELANIE L. BOSTWICK, Washington, DC; ELIZABETH MOULTON, Menlo Park, CA.

LLOYD LEE DAVIS, III, Andrews Kurth Kenyon LLP, Houston, TX, for amicus curiae Jeff C. Dodd.

Before MOORE, TARANTO, and CHEN, Circuit Judges.

TARANTO, Circuit Judge.

This case involves an international arbitration tribunal's decision on a contract claim, under French law, and patent-infringement claims, under U.S. law, in a dispute between Bayer CropScience NV and Bayer CropScience AG (sometimes collectively, Bayer), on one side, and Dow Agrosciences LLC, Mycogen Plant Science, Inc., Agrigenetics, Inc., and Phytogen Seed Co. (collectively, Dow), on the other. Bayer initially sued Dow for patent infringement, but the district court stayed the action pending arbitration. The arbitral tribunal awarded Bayer approximately $455 million, including damages for breach of contract and patent infringement, and set a rate for post-award interest. The district court, in the patent-infringement case, confirmed the arbitral award. The court rejected Dow's arguments against the award and also denied Dow's motion to clarify that interest from the date of the district court's judgment would accrue at the statutory rate for post-judgment interest rather than the tribunal's higher post-award rate. Dow appeals.

We conclude that the district court correctly confirmed the award, but abused its discretion regarding post-judgment interest. We modify the judgment to state that interest from the date of the district court's judgment accrues at the federal statutory rate. We affirm the judgment as modified.

I
A

Bayer CropScience NV, a successor of Plant Genetic Systems NV, owns or co-owns the Leemans patent family, which includes U.S. Patent Nos. 5,561,236, 5,646,024, 5,648,477, 7,112,665, and RE44,962. The patents describe and claim various technologies related to the pat gene, which confers resistance to the herbicide glufosinate. The Leemans patents issued from continuations of U.S. Patent Application No. 07/131,140 and have similar specifications.

Bayer CropScience AG, a successor of Hoechst AG, owns the Strauch patent family, including U.S. Patent Nos. 5,273,894 and 5,276,268 (Strauch '268). Although not asserted by Bayer CropScience AG, the Strauch patents are indirectly at issue, as the basis for Dow's double-patenting challenge to the Leemans patents. Bayer CropScience AG and Bayer CropScience NV are wholly owned subsidiaries of non-party Bayer AG.

Dow AgroSciences LLC produces the Enlist E3, Enlist E3+IR, Enlist Soybean, Enlist Cotton, Widestrike, and Widestrike 3 products through its subsidiaries, Mycogen Plant Science, Inc., Agrigenetics, Inc., and Phytogen Seed Co. Each of those products contains the pat gene. The Enlist E3 products also contain a molecular stack of the aad-12 and dmmg genes. Like the pat gene, the aad-12 and dmmg genes confer resistances to herbicides.

In June 1992, Hoechst AG and Lubrizol Genetics, Inc., Dow's predecessor, agreed to cross-license certain technol- ogies to which they had rights. That agreement (the 1992 Agreement) granted Lubrizol licenses to certain patents, including the Strauch and the Leemans patents. At the time of the agreement, Hoechst owned the Strauch patents and exclusively licensed the Leemans patents from Plant Genetic Systems NV.

Article 4 of the 1992 Agreement restricts the parties' use of the licensed technology:

No right or license is hereby granted, to either party, either expressly or by implication, to use any other proprietary technology owned by or available to the other in connection with the licenses granted hereunder.
Both parties are entitled to grant sublicences or distribution rights for their Transformants. Hoechst is furthermore entitled to grant sublicences for gene promoter constructs containing a Promoter in conjunction with any gene of which Hoechst can dispose.

J.A. 886, 4147. Article 12 states that the agreement is to be governed by and construed in accordance with French law and that all controversies or disputes are to be "decided by arbitration in accordance with the Rules of Conciliation and Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce." J.A. 889, 4150.

Between 2007 and 2008, Dow and non-party MS Technologies, LLC entered into a series of agreements regarding the pat and dmmg genes. In September 2007, MS Tech granted Dow access to the dmmg gene, to which MS Tech had a license under a 2004 agreement with Bayer CropScience AG. In April 2008, Dow transferred soybean seed transformants containing the aad-12, pat, and dmmg genes to MS-Tech. Dow and MS Tech's collaboration resulted in the creation of the Enlist E3 products.

In November 2007, Bayer CropScience AG and MS Tech entered into a new agreement, which involved the dmmg gene and which transferred ownership of Event FG72 to MS Tech. The agreement required MS Tech to pay Bayer CropScience AG a percentage—in this case, determined to be 50%—of the net trait revenues associated with Event FG72 until 2030.

B

In January 2012, Bayer CropScience AG terminated the 1992 Agreement after accusing Dow of materially breaching Article 4. The same month, Bayer CropScience AG and Bayer CropScience NV sued Dow in the Eastern District of Virginia for infringement of the '236, '024, '477, and '665 patents. Dow moved to dismiss or stay the action based on the agreement's arbitration clause. The district court stayed the action. See 9 U.S.C. § 3.

In September 2013, Bayer CropScience NV filed a reissue application for the '665 patent. See 35 U.S.C. § 251. In its application, Bayer CropScience NV stated that reissuance was appropriate in view of the Supreme Court's decision in Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, Inc., 133 S. Ct. 2107 (2013). The '665 patent reissued as the RE'962 patent, which expires in 2023. The other patents at issue expired no later than July 2014.

Between November 2014 and August 2015, Dow filed six requests for inter partes reexamination of the '236, '024, '447, and RE'962 patents. See Ex Parte Leemans, Control Nos. 90/013,394, 90/013,449, 90/013,452, 90/013,453, 90/013,515, 90/013,563. Dow alleged that claims 8, 9, 12, 15, 18, and 19 of the '236 patent; 1, 15, and 16 of the '024 patent; 1, 2, 15-17, and 19 of the '477 patent; and 1 and 2 of the RE'962 patent were invalid for obviousness-type double patenting over Strauch '268 and '894 and U.S. Patent No. 5,633,434. See Control Nos. -394, -449, -452, -453, -515. Dow also alleged that claim 2 of the RE'962 patent would have been obvious over certain prior-art references. Control No. -563. At the examiner level, the Office has issued final rejections in four proceedings, Control Nos. -394, -449, -515, -563, and non-final rejections in the others, Control Nos. -452, -453. Those proceedings remain pending in the Office and do not alter our resolution of this appeal. See 35 U.S.C. § 294; Fresenius USA, Inc. v. Baxter Int'l, Inc., 721 F.3d 1330 (Fed. Cir. 2013).

In October 2015, an arbitral tribunal entered an award, finding, in relevant part, that (1) Dow breached the 1992 Agreement by effectively sublicensing the pat gene to MS Tech; (2) Dow infringed various claims of the Leemans patents by its creation and other activities involving the identified Enlist and Widestrike product—specifically, claims 8, 9, 12, and 15 of the '236 patent; claims 15 and 16 of the '024 patent; claims 15, 16, and 19 of the '447 patent; and claim 1 of the RE'962 patent; (3) the asserted claims of the '024, '236, '447, '665, and RE'962 patents were not invalid for inadequate written description or lack of enablement; and (4) the '236, '024, '447, and RE'962 patents were not invalid for obviousness-type double patenting over Strauch '268. The tribunal awarded Bayer $455,459,187 in damages, including $374,731,000 in lost-opportunity damages under French law for breach of contract and $67,837,000 in reasonable-royalty damages under U.S. law for patent infringement. The tribunal also awarded Bayer pre-award interest using a rate of 8% and declared that the same rate would apply to "post-award interest." J.A. 560, 563. Arbitrator George Berman dissented in part, disagreeing with the tribunal's conclusion of no double patenting.

Bayer moved the district court to confirm the arbitral award. See 9 U.S.C. § 207. Dow cross-moved to vacate the award. The court confirmed the award. The court also denied Dow's motion to amend the judgment to clarify that any interest for a period after the district court's judgment would accrue at the rate specified by 28 U.S.C. § 1961(a), not at the tribunal's 8% rate for "post-award interest." Dow appeals. We conclude that we have jurisdiction, and we affirm the judgment as modified.

II

We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1295(a)(1), which gives us jurisdiction over any "appeal from a final decision of a district court . . . in any civil action arising under, or in any civil action in which a party has asserted a compulsory...

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