Eli Lilly & Co. v. Medtronic, Inc.

Eli Lilly and Company v. Medtronic, Inc., 496 U.S. 661 (1990), is a United States Supreme Court case related to patent infringement in the medical device industry. It held that 35 U.S.C. § 271(e)(1) of United States patent law exempted premarketing activity conducted to gain approval of a device under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act from a finding of infringement.

Eli Lilly & Co. v. Medtronic, Inc.
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued February 26, 1990 Decided June 18, 1990
Full case name	Eli Lilly and Company v. Medtronic, Inc.
Docket no.	89-243
Citations	496 U.S. 661 (more) 110 S. Ct. 2683; 110 L. Ed. 2d 605; 1990 U.S. LEXIS 3184; 58 U.S.L.W. 4838; 15 U.S.P.Q.2d (BNA) 1121
Case history
Prior	Judgment for plaintiff, 696 F. Supp. 1033 (E.D. Pa. 1988); reversed, 872 F.2d 402 (Fed. Cir. 1989); rehearing en banc denied, 879 F.2d 849 (Fed. Cir. 1989); cert. granted, 493 U.S. 889 (1989).
Subsequent	Rehearing Denied, August 14, 1990, 1990 U.S. LEXIS 3730; remanded to District Court, 915 F.2d 670 (1990).
Holding
Section 271(e)(1) exempts from infringement the use of patented inventions reasonably related to the development and submission of information needed to obtain marketing approval of medical devices under the FDCA.
Court membership
Chief Justice William Rehnquist Associate Justices William J. Brennan Jr. · Byron White Thurgood Marshall · Harry Blackmun John P. Stevens · Sandra Day O'Connor Antonin Scalia · Anthony Kennedy
Case opinions
Majority	Scalia, joined by Rehnquist, Brennan, Marshall, Blackmun, Stevens
Dissent	Kennedy, joined by White
O'Connor took no part in the consideration or decision of the case.
Laws applied
35 U.S.C. § 271

See also

• Medtronic, Inc. v. Lohr (1996)
• Riegel v. Medtronic, Inc. (2008)
• List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 496

External links

• Text of Eli Lilly & Co. v. Medtronic, Inc., 496 U.S. 661 (1990) is available from: Cornell CourtListener Google Scholar Justia Library of Congress Oyez (oral argument audio)