NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Sigma-Aldrich and Enzo Biochem have settled a patent-infringement suit Enzo filed four years ago against Sigma and six other life science companies, Sigma-Aldrich said today.
While the terms of the settlement were not disclosed, Sigma said the settlement “will not have a material adverse effect on the consolidated financial condition, results of operations, or liquidity.”
The US District Court judge overseeing the case last week approved the settlement, stipulation, and order to dismiss all claims and defenses.
As reported by GenomeWeb News, a US District Court in July settled the interpretations of eight patents at the heart of a 4-year-old lawsuit pitting Enzo against defendants GE Healthcare, Affymetrix, PerkinElmer, Sigma-Aldrich, Orchid Biosciences, Molecular Probes, and Roche.
Since it first filed the suits in 2002 and 2003, Enzo has alleged that the defendants, by selling its reagent kits improperly, infringe 15 claims of eight different patents. The parties participated in a Markman hearing to define the interpretations of those claims in July 2005.
In the order, handed down July 10, Judge John Sprizzo of the US District Court in the Southern District of New York ruled that Enzo could indeed proceed with its litigation against the seven biotech firms. However, Sprizzo rejected many of Enzo’s interpretations of the eight patents, causing both Enzo and one of its opponents to claim a victory.
Enzo issued a statement after the ruling arguing that “the ruling supports Enzo’s position that hundreds of defendants’ products infringe certain Enzo patents” and “opens the door for Enzo to not only pursue its patent infringement claims, but, as importantly, to also aggressively pursue its claims that defendants breached their contractual obligations to Enzo.”
Two days later Roche said that the judge ruled in its favor on key aspects of the suit. According to Roche, the judge adopted "virtually all" of the interpretations proposed by Roche and its co-parties relating to seven Enzo patents.