Third Wave Moves to Dismiss Its HCV Lawsuit Against Chiron, Bayer, Bayer Healthcare

NEW YORK, Feb. 23 (GenomeWeb News) - Third Wave Technologies hopes to dismiss its lawsuit against Chiron, Bayer, and Bayer HealthCare for allegedly infringing its hepatitis C virus diagnostic patents, the company said today.

The companies said no payments were made and no licenses were granted or taken.

Third Wave filed the lawsuit on Oct. 11, 2005, in federal court in Madison, Wis., seeking a ruling supporting its right to sell HCV diagnostics. John Puisis, then the company's CEO, said in a statement at the time that the firm wanted to "clear any remaining ambiguities about the company's freedom to operate in valuable markets like those for HCV and HPV."

Chiron owns "several patents" relating to HCV and Bayer has licensed those patents for clinical diagnostics, said Third Wave in October.

Earlier this month, Third Wave took a license to Innogenetics' HCV patent in order to settle its lawsuit against that company, and in January, the company settled its suit against Digene concerning human papilloma virus patents, which it had originally filed on the same day as its suit against Chiron, Bayer, and Bayer Healthcare.

Third Wave said it had now resolved all of its patent-related lawsuits, with the exception of its suit against Stratagene. In September, a federal jury found Stratagene infringed two Third Wave patents related to that company's Invader platform, and in December, a federal judge overseeing the suit tripled the damages awarded to Third Wave to $15.9 million.

Stratagene posted a $21-million bond in January to secure the damages awarded to Third Wave.

Stratagene said in January that it plans to appeal the District Court's decision in the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, DC, once a final judgement has been entered by the District Court.

In addition, Stratagene said it will seek to have the damages amount reduced or eliminated.