PerkinElmer Sues Waters and Agilent
PerkinElmer is seeking damages in both cases. In 2010, Waters requested the US Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) re-examine the two patents now under dispute in its case. Last year, the PTO cancelled or amended certain claims of the patents and reissued the patents. Waters and Agilent have yet to file responses with the court.
Boston, MA 2/29/12; Boston, MA 3/28/12—PerkinElmer has filed suit against two companies in Massachusetts District Court, claiming infringement of its patents for MS technology. PerkinElmer claims Waters’s Premier, Synapt and Xevo MS systems infringe US Patent Nos. 5,652,427 and 5,962,851 (Multipole Ion Guide for Mass Spectrometry). PerkinElmer alleges Agilent Technologies’ 6100 Series Quadrupole, 6200 Series TOF, 6300 Series Ion Trap, 6400 Series Triple Quad and 6500 Series Q-TOF infringe two patents: US Patent Nos. 5,686,726 (Composition of Matter of a Population of Multiply Charged Ions Derived from Polyatomic Parent Molecular Species) and 5,581,080 (A Method for Determining Molecular Weight Using Multiply Charged Ions). These patents were exclusively licensed by Yale University to Analytica of Branford, which PerkinElmer acquired in 2009 (see IBO 5/15/09). According to PerkinElmer, Agilent licensed the patents in 2007, but failed to make royalty payments related to the licenses after June 30, 2011, breaching its license agreement.
