NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Gen-Probe this week filed suit in a US District Court alleging that Becton Dickinson is infringing a series of patents held by the firm related to is Tigris molecular diagnostics blood-screening system.
The suit, filed Monday in the US District Court for the Southern District of California, alleges that BD's sales of its Viper with XTR Technology molecular diagnostics system infringes several patents — US Nos. 7,560,256; 7,560,255; 7,524,652; 7,482,143; 7,118,892; and 5,612,200 —held by Gen-Probe. In addition, Gen-Probe asserts that BD is infringing two other patents, US Nos. 7,294,308 and 6,893,612, through the sale of its BD ProbeTec Female Endocervical and Male Urethral Specimen Collection Kits for Amplified Chlamydia trachomatis/Neisseria gonorrhoeae DNA Assays.
Gen-Probe has asked the court to find that BD has infringed and continues to infringe all of the patents listed in the complaint. It has asked the court to enjoin BD from further alleged infringement, and it has asked for unspecified damages. Gen-Probe also asserts in the complaint that BD has willfully infringed its patents, and as a result it should be awarded treble damages.
Gen-Probe's Tigris system is used to screen a portion of the nation's blood supply and also is used in clinical labs to diagnose infectious diseases, including sexually transmitted diseases such as chlamydia and gonorrhea.