Innogenetics, N v. v. Abbott Laboratories

578 F. Supp. 2d 1079, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 193, 2007 WL 4960850
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Wisconsin
DecidedJanuary 3, 2007
Docket05-C-0575-C
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 578 F. Supp. 2d 1079 (Innogenetics, N v. v. Abbott Laboratories) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Wisconsin primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Innogenetics, N v. v. Abbott Laboratories, 578 F. Supp. 2d 1079, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 193, 2007 WL 4960850 (W.D. Wis. 2007).

Opinion

*1081 OPINION AND ORDER

BARBARA B. CRABB, District Judge.

This civil suit for patent infringement is before the court on a variety of motions filed by the parties following the entry of judgment on the jury’s verdict in favor of plaintiff Innogenetics, N.V. on its claims of literal and willful infringement. Defendant Abbott Laboratories has moved for (1) a new trial on plaintiffs claim of infringement and its own affirmative defense of invalidity; (2) judgment as a matter of law or a new trial on the issues of damages and willful infringement; (3) and a new trial on damages, pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 60(b)(2) and (3). Plaintiff has moved for a permanent injunction, an accounting and prejudgment interest and enhanced damages and attorney fees.

I conclude that defendant has not shown that it is entitled to a new trial on the issues of infringement or invalidity or to judgment as a matter of law on the issue of damages but that it is entitled to judgment as a matter of law on the issue of willful infringement. Defendant conceded at the start of trial that it had no evidence to defeat plaintiffs claim of infringement other than what was before the court on defendant’s motion for summary judgment, which I found insufficient to defeat the claim. Defendant conceded that it would be unable to prove obviousness to the jury in light of the court’s rulings and it failed to adduce sufficient evidence to persuade the jury that plaintiffs '704 patent was invalid because it had been anticipated by the prior art. As to damages, plaintiff adduced sufficient evidence to support the jury’s award of $7,000,000 in damages. On the issue of willful infringement, however, plaintiffs evidence was not sufficient to allow a reasonable jury to find that defendant acted willfully when it developed and sold its infringing products.

Defendant is not entitled to a new trial on damages pursuant to Rule 60(b)(2) or (3) because it has not shown that plaintiff obtained its jury verdict through fraud or that newly discovered evidence would affect the outcome of the trial. Plaintiff is entitled to an accounting and to prejudgment interest; it is not entitled to enhanced damages or attorney fees because *1082 defendant’s infringement was not willful and nothing about its litigation conduct makes this an exceptional case so as to warrant an award of attorney fees to plaintiff.

I will reserve a decision on plaintiffs motion for a permanent injunction and on the scope of that injunction until I have held an evidentiary hearing on the matter to determine whether barring defendant from selling its infringing assays will or will not harm the public’s interest in having access to adequate HCV testing technology.

I. BACKGROUND

The patent at issue is U.S. Patent No. 5,846,704, which issued in December 1998 on an application filed in July 1994. It is owned by plaintiff Innogenetics, N.V. Entitled “Process for Typing of HCV Isolates,” it claims a method of genotyping the hepatitis C virus (HCV) by specifically hybridizing probes to a particular region of the HCV genome known as the 5 prime untranslated region (5' UTR). The speed and relative inexpensiveness of the method disclosed in the patent make it possible for clinicians to learn quickly what particular genotype of HCV virus has infected their patient and thus, what antiviral medications will be most effective.

Claim 1 of the patent is the only independent claim. It reads as follows:

A method of genotyping HCV present in a biological sample comprising hybridizing nucleic acids in a biological sample with at least one probe and detecting a complex as formed with said probe and said nucleic acids of HCV, using a probe that specifically hybridizes to the domain extending from the nucleotides at positions -291 to -66 of the 5' untranslated region of HCV.

The asserted novelty of the '704 patent is its disclosure of a method of gentotyping the HCV present in a particular biological sample. Although other researchers had developed methods of detecting HCV in the 5' UTR, plaintiff contends, and the jury found, that the inventors of the '704 patent made the important and unanticipated discovery that they could distinguish among different types and subtypes of HCV in a sample, using probes that hybridize specifically to the 5' UTR of the HCV genome. This is a region of the HCV nucleic acid that other scientists knew could be used to detect the presence of HCV but had not realized could be used to determine and classify different HCV genotypes.

Defendant sells HCV genotyping assays that practice the method claimed in the '704 patent but do so using Realtime polymerase chain reaction (PCR), a technology that defendant asserted was not covered by the '704 patent. Plaintiff disagreed with this assertion and filed suit against defendant, alleging that defendant’s products infringed the ’704 patent and that the infringement was willful. Defendant responded by raising affirmative defenses of invalidity (anticipation and obviousness), plaintiffs failure to comply with the provisions of 35 U.S.C. §§ 102, 103 and 112 and inequitable conduct before the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Prior to trial, the parties filed cross motions for partial summary judgment on defendant’s claim of inequitable conduct. Defendant’s motion was denied; plaintiffs was granted. Op. & Order, dkt. # 131. Defendant filed a second motion for summary judgment on the issues of infringement and invalidity. This motion was denied in an order entered on August 11, 2006, on the ground that defendant had not shown as a matter of law that no reasonable jury could find in plaintiffs favor on these issues. Op. & Order, dkt. # 218. At the final pretrial conference, I *1083 determined that defendant had no evidence to support a claim of obviousness but that it could argue anticipation on the basis of a patent application filed by Dr. Cha and others that is prior art to the '704 patent.

The case went to trial on August 28, 2006. At the outset, I granted plaintiffs motion for judgment as a matter of law on the issue of infringement after defendant conceded that it had no evidence to support its defense to plaintiffs claim of infringement beyond what it had adduced in support of its motion for summary judgment. That evidence was limited to a showing that defendant used Realtime PCR to perform the genotyping process in the ’704 patent. As explained in the August 11, 2006 order, I do not agree with defendant’s contention that its products did not infringe because they employed Realtime technology. This ruling left only the affirmative defense of anticipation to be tried during the liability phase. On this defense, the jury returned a verdict in favor of plaintiff.

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Bluebook (online)
578 F. Supp. 2d 1079, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 193, 2007 WL 4960850, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/innogenetics-n-v-v-abbott-laboratories-wiwd-2007.