On Jan. 20, the U.S. Supreme Court released its decision in Teva Pharmaceuticals USA v. Sandoz.

The 7-2 decision substantially altered the standard of review applied when reviewing claim construction orders. Instead of universally applying a de novo standard, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit must now apply a split standard: de novo review for legal conclusions and ‘clear error’ review for subsidiary factual matters.