Arbutus Biopharma and Moderna Patent Dispute Update

In a memorandum posted to the site of the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, a judge wrote in part: "In this case, Arbutus Biopharma Corp. and Genevant Sciences GmbH claim that during the U.S. Government's own Operation Warp Speed to find a vaccine for Covid-19, Moderna Inc. and ModernaTX, Inc. violated the Prime Directive of patent law: don't copy other people's inventions. Moderna asks me to hold as a matter of law that when it jumped to warp speed to make a Covid-19 vaccine, it did so for the Government, meaning the claims in this case belong in the Court Of Federal Claims. It also argues that Arbutus can't pursue claims under the doctrine of equivalents and that Arbutus's patents are invalid. For the reasons that follow, I conclude that most of this dispute belongs in this Court and that factual disputes require a jury to decide if the patents are invalid. But I also hold that the prosecution history of some of Arbutus's patents forecloses Arbutus's doctrine-ofequivalents claims based on the molar ratios in Moderna's Covid-19 vaccine. For Arbutus to succeed on those claims, it will have to prove literal infringement." In afternoon trading, Moderna shares are up $1.32, or 3%, to $45.39.