NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) — A Wisconsin court has upheld a $7-million verdict against Abbott Laboratories for infringing a patent held by Innogenetics that protects a process for typing HCV isolates, the Belgian biotech said yesterday.
The court also denied Abbott’s motion for a new trial based on “infringement and validity” and granted Innogenetics’ motion to set another hearing to consider permanently barring Abbott from selling the infringing products, Innogenetics said.
Innogenetics originally sued Abbott in September 2005, accusing the drug maker and Third Wave Technologies of infringing the patent. Third Wave settled its suit in February 2006 by taking a non-exclusive license to sell the HCV genotyping hardware and an option to extend the license to include the entire HCV patent estate.
Tried in the US District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin, the Abbott suit culminated in a jury verdict that in September 2006 awarded Innogenetics $7 million.
The judge in the case had the leeway to increase that award by as much as three times on the jury’s opinion that the infringement was willful, but declined to do so.