Cohesive Technologies Inc.’s patent upheld against Water Corporation (NYSE:WAT) in Europe
Franklin, MA - December 5, 2002
Cohesive Technologies Inc.’s patent upheld against Water Corporation (NYSE:WAT) in Europe
FRANKLIN, Mass., December 5 – Cohesive Technologies Inc. (www.cohesivetech.com) announced today that the appeals panel of the Opposition Division of the European patent office in Munich, Germany declared Cohesive Technologies’ European patent No. EP0838032B1, named “High Performance Liquid Chromatography Method and Apparatus,” to be maintained unamended and upheld against Waters Corporation (NYSE: WAT).
Patent No. EP0838032B1, issued on March 10, 1999, protects Cohesive’s breakthrough high throughput liquid chromatography (HTLC) technology known as TurboFlow. Waters Corporation filed a notice of opposition on December 10, 1999 to the validity of the European patent. The first oral decision from the opposition sided with Waters Corporation and revoked the patent in March 2001. Cohesive Technologies appealed the decision and as a result, the panel overturned the original decision and upheld the validity of Cohesive’s patent.
This decision directly parallels the earlier patent infringement lawsuit against Waters Corporation where the jury found Waters Corporation liable for infringing Cohesive’s U.S. patent No. 5,772,874, by selling its liquid chromatography systems in combination with HPLC columns known by the trade name OASIS™. Both cases upheld the validity of Cohesive’s European and U.S. patents.
“It’s extremely gratifying knowing that our intellectual property has now been validated on both continents. Further, this decision in Europe, coming on the back of the decision in the U.S., bodes well for future expansion of our products worldwide,” said Cohesive’s chairman and chief technology officer, Hubert M. Quinn.
Added Peter H. Glick, Cohesive’s president and chief executive officer: “We’ve doubled our revenues over the past year and this decision positions us beautifully to continue our growth and double again.”
Cohesive’s high throughput liquid chromatography systems have been shown to dramatically increase speed and reduce costs of bioanalytical testing for drug discovery and development. Researchers from Merck & Co., Inc., GlaxoSmithKline, Eli Lilly, and several other major pharmaceutical companies have published results of up to a four-fold increase in sample throughput. Cohesive Technologies has over 250 systems installed worldwide. The Company’s investors include Oxford Bioscience Partners, Thomas Weisel Partners, and Dauphin
Capital Partners.
Cohesive Technologies develops, manufactures, and markets novel liquid chromatography systems and chemistries for the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and clinical diagnostic marketplace. These products have made Cohesive a leader in creating new tools for high-throughput bioanalysis. Detailed information about Cohesive Technologies’ products and technology can be found on its Web site, which also has a bibliography of publications by Cohesive customers describing their successful use of the technology.
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