NEW YORK, May 17 - Caliper Technologies is suing Molecular Devices for patent infringement, according to securities documents filed by MDC on Wednesday.
The lawsuit, filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California on April 16, alleges that MDC's kinase-assay products violate Caliper's US patents.
Caliper seeks damages for past sales of IMAP products and an injunction against future sales.
Molecular Devices filed an answer and counter-claim on May 8 denying the allegations, making a counter-claim for declaratory relief and alleging that the Caliper patent is invalid.
Both companies have developed non-radioactive systems for high-throughput kinase assays.
MDC's IMAP products work through the binding of trivalent metal ions to phosphate groups to create changes in fluorescence polarization.
The Caliper patent in question covers a range of assays in which the reaction product is bound to a polyionic component, and then detected through conventional means.
MDC says that its IMAP products account for less than 1 percent of company revenue.