Replies to post #423480 on Amarin Corp Plc (AMRN)

[Birdbrain Ideas]

To this day, I've wondered why the Federal Circuit was so dismissive of the appeal of Judge Du's ruling. It crossed my mind that there was something unusual going on. Perhaps one of the judges knew Judge Du personally -- not a far fetched possibility in the small circle of federal judges nationwide -- and thought the Amarin lawyers were insulting and belittling to Judge Du in the way they wrote their appeal papers. As I recall, Amarin's lawyers toyed with the concept of "obviousness" in a way that a friend of Judge Du might have thought was condescending toward the judge and her reasoning. Judges tend to get somewhat defensive when they feel like a fellow judge is being mocked or unjustly cast in a bad light for doing her job, or at least trying to do her job.

Generally, a pithy one-page dismissal of an appeal of this kind of importance is rare. In the case of the Amarin arguments earlier this month, the panel will have to carefully word its opinion so that the lower court judge has clear instructions on how to proceed and why the case is being returned to him. And since it's such a sensitive subject of law (skinny labels) to small pharmaceuticals and the vulture generics who want to steal their products, the judges will likely be careful to make clear that they're not trying to set any precedents with their handling of the Amarin case, especially since the lawyer for generics made it sound like the judges would be rewriting law and eliminating skinny labels all together if they revive the case. One judge did a great job on the spot of shooting down the balloon that the lawyer for generics floated to that effect, but they'll want to make it doubly clear in their written opinion that the judges all agree with what was said off the cuff. So careful and thoughtful wording will go into this decision, regardless of its length, which probably adds weeks to a ruling coming out. Still, I hope I'm wrong and we see a ruling tomorrow because I think Amarin's share price will get a nice bump even though any of us who heard the arguments already know the outcome.