by Dennis Crouch
For several years we have been tossing around the question of whether no-IPR contracts are enforceable. In Nippon Shinyaku v. Sarepta Therapeutics (Fed. Cir. 2022), the court says "YES THEY ARE" (at least when an alternate forum is provided). Although the court did not enter into any serious policy analysis or consideration of Supreme Court precedent promoting patent challenges such as Lear, Inc. v. Adkins, 395 U.S. 653 (1969); & MedImmune, Inc. v. Genentech, Inc., 549 U.S. 118, 124 (2007).
