A Diagnostics & Imaging Week

Roche Diagnostics (Pleasanton, California) reported that a district judge in New York has ruled in its favor on certain aspects of patent infringement allegations brought by Enzo Biochem (Farmingdale, New York). The litigation, filed in 2002, concerns products and techniques for detecting genetic information in biological samples, such as blood.

Roche said the court adopted "virtually all" of the interpretations proposed by Roche Diagnostics and its co-parties relating to seven Enzo patents covered by the order. The judge's ruling followed a week-long hearing in July 2005 and legal briefs by the parties.

"This order will allow us to request a further ruling from the court, declaring that Roche does not infringe on this patent," said Melinda Griffith, senior vice president and general counsel of Roche Molecular Diagnostics. "We look forward to the successful conclusion of this litigation."

Enzo contends that Roche's AmpliChip CYP450 Test infringes Enzo's U.S. patent No. 4,994,373.

The judge's order "rejected Enzo's interpretations of both the testing format and the 'soluble signal' claimed by this patent, and instead agreed with interpretations by Roche Diagnostics and its co-parties," Roche said.

A U. S. District Court judge for the Northern District of Alabama has entered a final judgment for Weston Smith, former CFO of HealthSouth (Birmingham, Alabama).

Smith was ordered to pay disgorgement of $4,897,124 and prejudgment interest of $2,021,211, provided that $1.5 million of the disgorgement and prejudgment interest is deemed satisfied by forfeiture and restitution ordered against him in the related criminal proceeding. The judgment waived the remainder and did not order Smith to pay a civil penalty based on his sworn representations in his statement of financial condition.

In the related criminal proceeding, Smith was sentenced to serve 27 months in prison.

The judgment enjoins Smith from future violations of securities rules, and he is permanently barred from serving as an officer or director of a public company.

The complaint, filed on March 31, 2003, charged that Smith made or directed HealthSouth employees to make false accounting entries to inflate reported operating results in order to meet or exceed Wall Street expectations.

Smith consented to the entry of the judgment without admitting or denying any of the allegations.