Summary judgement in Roche/Igen suit

IGEN said the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland Southern Division issued summary judgement dismissing a counterclaim for fraud filed by Roche Diagnostics, an F. Hoffmann-La Roche (SWX:ROCZ) division. IGEN also said the court turned down ROCZ's request for punitive damages. The summary judgement relates to a suit filed by IGEN in 1997 claiming that Boehringer Mannheim, which was acquired by ROCZ, committed numerous breaches of the companies' 1992 licensing agreement covering IGEN's Origen electrochemiluminescence technology. (see BioCentury, Sept. 22, 1997). In 1998, the court granted IGEN's preliminary injunction request and precluded Boehringer Mannheim from distributing products based on the IGEN technology (see BioCentury, Aug. 3, 1998). ...