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Extended-wear contact lens lawsuit resumes
The patent office has validated CIBA Vision's patents, so the company's suit against Bausch & Lomb for patent infringement will proceed.
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ATLANTA – CIBA Vision Corp. announced that its lawsuit against Bausch & Lomb for infringement of its extended-wear contact lens patent and trademarks has been restarted by a ruling in the Gainesville, Ga., Federal District Court. In the same ruling, the court denied Bausch & Lomb's summary judgment motion concerning CIBA Vision's PureEyes trademark.
The lawsuit claims that Bausch & Lomb's PureVision contact lenses infringe on CIBA Vision's patents that protect the company's Focus Night & Day product, an extended-wear contact lens pending Food and Drug Administration approval. CIBA Vision is seeking to have the court prohibit Bausch & Lomb from continuing to sell PureVision, which was launched in the United States in March 1999.
The lawsuit also claims that Bausch & Lomb's PureVision brand infringes on CIBA Vision's PureEyes trademark.
After CIBA Vision filed the lawsuit in March 1999, Bausch & Lomb attempted to invalidate CIBA Vision's four patents in four re-examination proceedings before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. After a review, the patent office decided to re-issue all four patents, confirming their validity.
Bausch & Lomb still disagrees. “We are confident that CIBA's patents are invalid,” said Margaret Graham, director of corporate communications for Bausch & Lomb. “We are going to vigorously defend our proprietary technology rights. We are firmly standing behind our PureVision contact lens, which is the result of more than 10 years of dedicated proprietary research that we developed.
“We are eager to bring this matter to resolution in court,” Ms. Graham said.
The next step is the completion of the discovery process, said Scott Meece, CIBA Vision general counsel and group vice president for legal affairs, business development and licensing. “This will include a number of depositions of CIBA Vision and Bausch & Lomb personnel,” he said.
Mr. Meece said CIBA Vision hopes for a trial date early next year.
For Your Information:
- Margaret Graham is director of corporate communications for Bausch & Lomb. She can be reached at 1400 N. Goodman St., Rochester, NY 14609; (716) 338-5469; fax: (716) 338-0317; e-mail: margaret_graham@bausch.com.
- Scott Meece is general counsel and group vice president for legal affairs, business development and licensing for CIBA Vision. He can be reached at 11460 Johns Creek Pkwy., Duluth, GA 30097-1556; (678) 415-3646; fax: (678) 415-3592.