Jul 26 2007
Digene Corp. has announced that the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin issued a pre-trial claim construction decision in the pending litigation between Digene and Third Wave Technologies, Inc. In that litigation, Digene alleges that Third Wave infringes its U.S. Patent No. 5,643,715 covering probes and methods for detecting human papillomavirus (HPV) type 52, a high-risk type of HPV.
In the decision, the court did not adopt all of the positions argued by Digene, Pam Rasmussen, company spokesperson, stated: "We clearly disagree with the court's decision, and continue to believe in the strength of our claims and remain committed to vigorously enforcing our intellectual property rights. As such, we are reviewing the court's opinion and evaluating our legal alternatives and next steps."
Ms. Rasmussen continued: "The Digene HPV intellectual property franchise is the most extensive in the industry and our HPV test is the only HPV test approved by the FDA."
Pre-trial discovery and other proceedings in the Third Wave case will continue for the remainder of 2007 and a jury trial is currently scheduled for the first quarter of 2008. Refer to the corporation's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission for more information about its claim against Third Wave Technologies.