In Brief: Chiron/Ortho v. Roche
This article was originally published in The Gray Sheet
Executive Summary
Chiron and immunodiagnostics partner Ortho Diagnostics Systems file patent infringement claims in the Northern District Court of California and in the District Court of The Hague, The Netherlands against Hoffmann La Roche alleging that Roche's hepatitis C polymerase chain reaction assays infringe Chiron's newly-issued U.S. patents 5,712,088 and 5,714,596, and its longer-standing European patent EP318,216. Both suits ask the courts to enjoin Roche from further sales of its HCV PCR tests and to pay Chiron/Ortho "unspecified damages," Chiron says. Previous HCV-related patent infringement suits brought by Chiron/Ortho resulted in settlements favoring Chiron/Ortho's European patent position. In September 1996, Chiron/Ortho and International Murex settled their patent dispute by entering a worldwide licensing agreement ("The Gray Sheet" Sept. 2, 1996, I&W-7). In October 1995, Organon Teknika agreed to stop selling its HCV assays in Europe and paid Chiron/Ortho a compensatory lump-sum payment for past infringement...