Allergan Inc., the Irvine drug maker, said Thursday that a federal appeals court upheld an earlier ruling protecting its Acular eye drug patent from generics.

Allergan said that the U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a ruling that Canadian drug maker Apotex and its Novex Pharma unit infringed a patent for Acular, which treats inflammation following cataract surgery. Allergan licenses rights to Acular from Roche Palo Alto LLC.

The earlier decision from June 2006 prevents the Food and Drug Administration from issuing an approval for a generic version of Acular.