By Donald Zuhn

On March 9, 2007, Innogenetics announced that the Federal Circuit reinstated a permanent injunction issued by the District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin against Abbott Laboratories.

In September 2005, Innogenetics sued Abbott Laboratories for infringement of U.S. Patent No. 5,846,704, which covers a method of genotyping hepatitis C virus (HCV).  At trial, the District Court determined that the ‘704 patent was infringed as a matter of law, and on September 1, 2006, a jury found the ‘704 patent to be valid.  One week later, the same jury found Abbott’s infringement to be willful and awarded $7 million in damages to Innogenetics.  As reported on Patent Docs (see January 8 and January 12), the District Court upheld the jury’s $7 million damages award on January 3, 2007, and one week later, issued a permanent injunction in favor of Innogenetics, halting sales of Abbott’s HCV genotyping test kits.

In response to the District Court’s decision, Abbott sought an emergency motion to stay the injunction pending its appeal to the Federal Circuit.  On January 19, the Federal Circuit temporarily stayed the injunction.  However, on March 8, that temporary stay was lifted.

    Additional information regarding this case can be found here.