In a brief filed with the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday, the federal government said that generic drugmakers should be allowed to file legal "counterclaims" against brand-name drugmakers' patent protections so that it is easier for them to introduce low-cost versions of medications when the patents have expired. The government's brief was submitted for oral arguments in a case filed by Caraco Pharmaceuticals, the generic unit of Sun Pharmaceuticals, against Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk. Caraco argues that the patent description of Novo's diabetes drug Prandin is too broad and prevents any generic version from being introduced into the market. In its brief, the government noted that FDA uses narrowed patent descriptions to grant approval to generic versions of medications that save consumers billions of dollars annually.