NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) — Digene today said that a federal court last week dismissed Beckman Coulter from a patent-infringement suit filed against it by Digene.
Digene sued Beckman and Ventana Medical Systems in 2005 for allegedly infringing patents related to the company’s human papillomavirus materials and intellectual property.
Digene said it will continue its litigation against Ventana.
Beckman Coulter and Digene agreed through arbitration in 2006 that Beckman’s sale of certain HPV-related patent rights to Ventana was “impermissible,” Digene CEO Daryl Faulkner said in a statement.
The court affirmed the decision of the arbitration panel, the Dispute Resolution of the American Arbitration Association, which found that Beckman Coulter violated a cross-license agreement between Digene and the Institut Pasteur by selling its HPV intellectual property to Ventana.
The panel also ruled that Beckman Coulter was allowed to assign HPV licenses it had received previously from Pasteur.
“With this motion behind us, we expect to continue our efforts to defend our intellectual property rights,” Faulkner said.