30 Sep Third Wave sued by one firm; gets injunction against another
Madison, Wis. — Third Wave Technologies Inc., a developer of molecular diagnostics for a variety of DNA and RNA analysis applications, is being sued by Belgium-based Innogenetics N.V., which alleges infringement of its hepatitis C virus patents. Meanwhile, in a separate case, Third Wave has won a ruling against a California company over disputed products.
Innogenetics is a provider of diagnostic and therapeutic products, with a focus on infectious diseases and genetic analysis.
A Third Wave official disputed the merits of the suit.
“Innogenetics’ suit lacks a basic understanding of the uniqueness of Third Wave’s Invader chemistry and how it is configured in our HCV analyte-specific reagents,” said Kevin Conroy, Third Wave’s vice president and general counsel. “It appears that Innogenetics filed suit against Third Wave without first understanding how our product is designed.”
Conroy added that Third Wave, in addition to maintaining that it is not violating the Innogenetics patent, also believes the patent is not valid in the first place.
In a separate case, Third Wave won an injunction from Judge Barbara Crabb of U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin, against California-based Stratagene Corp., barring Stratagene from manufacturing or selling its FullVelocity QPCR and its Full Velocity QRT-PCR products. A jury had previously held that those products infringed on patents held by Third Wave, and awarded $5.29 million in damages.
Stratagene indicated in a statement that it does not believe the facts of the case justified the verdict or the penalties, and it intends to appeal. Additionally, it noted that the sales of the individual products in the suit made up less than $400,000, and has a variety of other embodiments of its FullVelocity products not subject to the patent suit.
Click here for previous WTN coverage of Third Wave’s legal issues with Stratagene.