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Federal court upholds ban on PureVision lenses
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ATLANTA — Bausch & Lomb’s PureVision contact lenses have been found to infringe on a CIBA Vision patent, an appeals court ruled.
The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has upheld a lower court ruling that found Bausch & Lomb’s PureVision contact lenses infringe on CIBA Vision’s Harvey Patent.
The ruling by the Court of Appeals prohibits the continued manufacture and sale of PureVision lenses within the United States until at least 2005, when the Harvey Patent expires. The decision does not affect Bausch & Lomb from marketing the lenses outside the United States, according to a company statement.
The patent infringement lawsuit, originally filed by CIBA Vision’s Wesley Jessen subsidiary on May 3, 2001, claimed that Bausch & Lomb’s PureVision product infringes on U.S. Patent No. 4,711,943, issued to Thomas Harvey III. On June 26, 2002, the District Court agreed and ordered Bausch & Lomb to discontinue the manufacture and sale of the lens in the United States.
CIBA Vision is awaiting a decision on other litigation against Bausch & Lomb, claiming patent infringement on four additional patents relating to Bausch & Lomb’s continuous wear technology. Should CIBA prevail in that case, the PureVision lenses will remain off the U.S. market until 2014, a CIBA press release stated.