NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Molecular diagnostics firm HandyLab has filed a lawsuit against Caliper Life Sciences seeking a declaration from a court that it is not infringing Caliper's microfluidics patents.
Caliper has not filed an infringement suit against HandyLab. However, the Ann Arbor, Mich.-based firm filed the suit in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan stating that in late May, Caliper's Director of Business Development, Stephane Mouradian, sent a letter to the firm suggesting that its Raider and Jaguar instrument systems and associated consumables "could benefit from a license to Caliper's microfluidic intellectual property."
Caliper identified 13 US patents that it believes covers devices, methods, databases, and components that are "read on HandyLab's products or services," according to the lawsuit. Caliper further stated in a second later in June that it would be "willing to license HandyLab under its entire portfolio of microfluidic patents not just the 13 cited in our letter."
In addition, HandyLab claimed in its suit that Caliper sent a similar letter to its distributor Thermo Fisher Scientific in late May, identifying the same asserted patents.
HandyLab said that it denies that any of its products infringe the Caliper patents. It also stated in the filing, "As a consequence of Caliper's assertions of infringement, thereby interfering with directly and indirectly HandyLab's business and attempts to obtain business, an actual controversy presently exists between HandyLab and Caliper as to the invalidity and noninfringement of the asserted patents."
HandyLab is seeking a declaration from the court that the asserted patents and their respective claims are "invalid, unenforceable, and/or not infringed by Plaintiff." It also is seeking costs and attorneys' fees and any further relief deemed appropriate by the court.