Pasteur Institute loses patent case against Abbott
This article was originally published in Scrip
Executive Summary
French media have carried an AFP report that the Pasteur Institutehas been unsuccessful in a legal challenge over three of its patents that it said Abbott had infringed. It was claiming more than €7.6 million fromAbbott, but now will have to pay €150,000 to cover the company's court costs. The French institute and the US National Institutes of Health had a cross-linked intellectual property agreement relating to HIV1 testing, allowing each to license out aspects of the other's work. A Paris court has found that the Pasteur Institute's patents were covered by its licensing agreement with the NIH and that Abbott's sublicence to use them was valid. None of the parties has yet made an official statement on the ruling.
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