On September 9, 2022, LMG Life Sciences awarded Williams & Connolly the Hatch-Waxman Impact Case of the Year award for the firm’s representation of Arbutus Biopharma Corporation in two important appeals before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit concerning Moderna’s challenges to Arbutus’s patents directed to nucleic-acid lipid particles used to deliver nucleic acid cargoes to cells. Those patents were later asserted by Arbutus and Genevant against Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine, in a pending matter filed by Williams & Connolly.

After the Patent Trial & Appeal Board largely rejected Moderna’s challenges to the patents, Arbutus retained Williams & Connolly to defend those rulings in oral argument before the Federal Circuit. Following oral argument by David Berl, the Federal Circuit dismissed one of Moderna’s appeals for lack of standing. In the other appeal, the Court affirmed the Board’s decision upholding the challenged claims of the Arbutus patent. 

The team representing Arbutus included David Berl, Thomas Fletcher, and Jessica Ryen.

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