Inverness Medical Innovations, Inc. ("Inverness US"), Inverness Medical Switzerland GmbH ("Inverness Switzerland"), and SPD Swiss Precision Diagnostics GmbH ("SPD") (collectively, "Inverness") have filed a federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court, District of Massachusetts, against Church & Dwight Company, Inc. ("C&D") for patent infringement. Inverness US is based in Waltham, MA, Inverness Switzerland is based in Zug, Switzerland, and SPD is based in Geneva, Switzerland. C&D is based in Princeton, NJ. C&D is known for the being the corporate home of, among other products, Arm & Hammer, OxyClean, Nair, Trojan and First Response.

According to the complaint, Inverness Switzerland is the owner of the U.S. Patent No. 7,317,532 (the '532 patent"), entitled "Flow Sensing for Determination of Assay Results." SPD is an exclusive licensee to the '532 patent, and through Inverness US, markets and sells nationwide home pregnancy tests under the brand name Clearblue Easy. Inverness US is an exclusive importer, packager, and reseller of Clearblue Easy products in the U.S. Inverness says the Clearblue Easy pregnancy test device practices at least one claim of the '532 patent.

The complaint states that C&D markets and sells nationwide digital pregnancy tests under the brand name First Response Gold, which is a competitor with the Clearblue Easy products. The complaint alleges that C&D, without authority, manufactures and sells products including First Response Gold that are covered by one or more claims of the '532 patent, thereby infringing one or more claims of the '532 patent.

Inverness is requesting that the court find C&D has engaged in patent infringement, that C&D be permanently enjoined and restrained from further infringing the '532 patent; that the infringing products be destroyed; and unspecified monetary damages.

No statements from Inverness or C&D have been released regarding the suit as of Monday. Inverness did announce Monday it has commenced a cash tender offer to acquire a majority equity interest in Standard Diagnostics ("SD"), a Korea-based company manufacturing rapid diagnostics kits. Inverness has offered to acquire up to 75.79% of the issued shares of SD.

The Inverness acquisition press release: http://www.invernessmedical.com/news--media/news---press-releases.aspx

More Voices