A Diagnostics & Imaging Week

Stratagene (La Jolla, California), a manufacturer of research and diagnostic products, said that in the matter of Invitrogen Corporation vs. Stratagene, heard in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, a jury ruled that it had infringed a U.S. patent (No. 4,981,797) held by Invitrogen (Carlsbad, California) by making and selling its competent E. coli cell products.

The jury decided to award Invitrogen a 15% royalty rate on sales between the years 1997 and 2004 for $7.8 million in damages and found that Stratagene willfully infringed the patent only between the years 1997 and 2001. The jury ruled that Invitrogen was not entitled to lost profits because Stratagene has had a non-infringing manufacturing process for competent cells. Invitrogen had been seeking $32 million in damages, based on lost profits.

Stratagene has the option to appeal the verdict.

Other details concerning the final judgment are being considered by the presiding judge. Stratagene said it had previously modified its process for manufacturing competent E. coli cell products and, as a result, Invitrogen has agreed that Stratagene products sold in recent years and currently offered for sale will not be affected by the verdict.

The action was initiated by Invitrogen in 2001, and the district court then found that Invitrogen's patent was not infringed by Stratagene. An appeals court reversed the decision in part and remanded the case to the lower court.

In January 2004, the district court granted partial summary judgment to Invitrogen based on the determination that Stratagene's then-existing manufacturing process infringed Invitrogen's patent, but also determined that Invitrogen's patent was invalid. Stratagene then changed its manufacturing process to a non-infringing method.

Invitrogen appealed the decision again, and in late 2005 the Federal Circuit Court reversed the district court's findings in part. The case was remanded to district court, resulting in the jury's determination handed down on Tuesday.

Diagnostic Products Corp. (DPC; Los Angeles) reported that plaintiffs in a pending shareholder derivative action Nicholas Weil, City of Tamarac General Employees' Pension Trust Fund and City of Tamarac Police Officers' Pension Trust Fund have filed a first amended complaint in the U.S. District Court of the Central District of California.

The amended complaint challenges the merger of DPC with a wholly owned subsidiary of Siemens Medical Solutions (Erlangen, Germany/Malvern, Pennsylvania).

The acquisition valued at about $1.86 billion and first unveiled in April (Diagnostics & Imaging Week, May 4, 2006) was completed by Siemens late last week.

DPC said that reasons for the challenge include fairness of price, disclosure and conflict-of-interest issues. The amended complaint seeks to enjoin or rescind the merger. In a statement, DPC said that it believes that the claims are without merit and that it will vigorously defend itself in this case.

Founded in 1971, DPC develops in vitro diagnostics, its products including the Immulite series of immunoassay systems, more than 75 immunoassays and a menu of specific allergens and allergy panels that are run like other immunoassays. DPC also designs and manufactures automated laboratory instrumentation and automation solutions.