Medimmune, Inc. v. Genentech, Inc.: A Patent Licensee Does Not Need to Terminate or Breach a License Agreement in Order to Challenge its Validity or Enforceability

MedImmune, Inc. v. Genentech, Inc. asks whether Article III\u27s restriction on the jurisdiction of the federal courts only to cases and controversies, as required by the actual controversy limitation of the Declaratory Judgment Act, necessitates that a patent licensee terminate or breach its license agreement before seeking a declaratory judgment to hold the underlying patent invalid, unenforceable, or not infringed. Breaking with the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the MedImmune majority clearly establishes a patent licensee\u27s legal right to challenge the validity and enforceability of a patent without actually breaching or terminating the underlying licensing agreement for the challenged patent. Thus, a challenge to the validity of a patent is now a justiciable controversy for which a federal court has subject matter jurisdiction