Patent Victory on Behalf of CIBA Vision
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The international law firm of McDermott Will & Emery is pleased to announce a major patent litigation victory on behalf of CIBA Vision, the eye care unit of Novartis AG. The U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware ruled in favor of CIBA Vision’s wholly-owned subsidiary Wesley Jessen Corp., who claimed that Bausch & Lomb’s PureVision product infringed Wesley Jessen’s patent, which covers various silicone hydrogel materials for contact lenses. The court affirmed that Wesley Jessen’s patent was valid, enforceable and infringed, ordering Bausch & Lomb to immediately discontinue the manufacturing and sale of its PureVision lenses in the United States. The court’s decision came only 13 months after the case was filed. An earlier attempt by Bausch & Lomb to transfer the case to Atlanta failed and a tight pretrial schedule followed.
In addition to Wesley Jessen’s lawsuit, CIBA Vision currently has litigation pending against Bausch & Lomb for the infringement of four U.S. patents that protect CIBA Vision’s Focus® NIGHT & DAY™ product, an extended wear contact lens with the highest oxygen permeability of any soft contact lens. The patent case, originally filed in March 1999, was previously delayed when Bausch & Lomb attempted to invalidate CIBA Vision's four patents. Four reexamination proceedings before the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) resulted in the USPTO reissuing the four patents, confirming the patents’ validity and illustrating the pioneering nature of CIBA Vision's inventions. The original patent case was then restarted in April 2001.
McDermott Will & Emery’s IP litigation team for Wesley Jessen’s victory included Chuck Work, Tom Steindler, Ray Lupo, Ken Cage, Dan Bucca and Pascale Bishop, all from the Firm’s Washington, D.C. office. This is the latest of several significant patent victories for McDermott, Will & Emery, including its successful representation of Broadcom against Intel in the District Court for the Northern District of California and the Firm’s victory on behalf of Medtronic convincing the court to overturn a $271 million judgement against Medtronic in its lawsuit with Cordis Corp.
