Pre-trial rulings in ABI/Amersham case

Applied Biosystems (ABI) said Judge Charles Breyer of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California made decisions on various pre-trial motions in two patent suits between Amersham Pharmacia Biotech (Uppsala, Sweden) and ABI relating to fluorescent labeling technology and DNA sequencing instrumentation technology. In one suit, the judge granted Amersham's motion for summary judgement that certain ABI products infringe Amersham's U.S. Patent No. 5,688,648 covering energy-transfer fluorescent labeling technology. However, ABI said the judge denied Amersham's motion for summary judgement that ABI induced its customers to infringe the '648 patent. The judge also denied Amersham's motion for summary judgement that the claims of the patent are enabled, ABI said. The trial is scheduled for late January. ...