AMO awarded $213 million in phaco suit; Alcon will appeal ruling

A federal judge awarded Advanced Medical Optics $213.9 million in damages resulting from “willful infringement” by Alcon of two patents on technology for phacoemulsification, AMO announced. Alcon immediately announced that it will appeal the decision.

The judge affirmed a May 2005 jury decision that had awarded AMO $94.8 million in damages, reflecting lost profits and royalty fees. However, the judge ruled AMO had not sufficiently marked its patents on the equipment and reduced the award to $71.3 million. This revised amount was tripled, resulting in the figure of $213.9 million, according to AMO. The final judgment will include damages on infringing products sold by Alcon after March 2005, plus pre-judgment interest, AMO said.

The dispute centers on two patents held by AMO relating to occlusion mode technology and a fluidics management system and alleges that Alcon infringed these patents. The judge in the case stated that the jury had been presented with “clear and convincing evidence that Alcon intentionally copied” the occlusion mode and the fluidics system of AMO’s Sovereign machine, according to a press release from AMO.

Although the court granted AMO’s motion for an injunction, the court also granted Alcon’s motion to stay the injunction pending the outcome of its appeal, Alcon said in a separate press release. Alcon added that the court’s order allows existing customers and those who purchase the Infiniti system while the appeal is pending to “use them for the life of the equipment without interruption or restriction.” Alcon said it will continue to provide full service for those machines and is developing an alternative design of the Infiniti FMS cassette that should be available in the first half of 2006.