A Diagnostics & Imaging Week
Bio-Rad Laboratories (Hercules, California), a manufacturer of life science research products and clinical diagnostics, reported that it received a “recommended ruling” issued by the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut regarding longstanding patent infringement dispute filed on behalf of the Applied Biosystems (ABI; Foster City, California) group of Applera (Norwalk, Connecticut) against Bio-Rad affiliate MJ Research.
The court has denied MJ Research’s motion to enforce a settlement agreement established on Aug. 29 among the parties.
The court in the August decision issued a permanent injunction against Bio-Rad and MJ Research prohibiting them from making or selling infringing thermal cycler products in the U.S., capable of performing polymerase chain reaction (PCR) methods, including real-time PCR methods.
MJ Research and Bio-Rad said they plan to appeal this decision. Bio-Rad said that until then it would comply with the injunction issued by the court.
Bio-Rad is a longtime licensee of certain intellectual property covered by Applera’s patents, and it inherited responsibility for the 1998 patent infringement case brought against MJ Research as part of its 2004 acquisition of MJ GeneWorks, parent company of MJ Research.
Bio-Rad manufactures life science research products and clinical diagnostics. Applied Biosystems develops instrument-based systems, reagents, software and contract services for the life science and research markets.