Friday, September 16, 2011

Haemonetics handed a loss in pair of patent suits

By Rodney H. Brown

Blood management company Haemonetics Corp. has lost a pair of lawsuits it had brought against Illinois firm Fenwal Inc. over red blood cell separation technology.

In a decision handed down on Tuesday, Judge Nathaniel Gorton, of the U.S. District court of Massachusetts, allowed a summary judgement in favor of Fenwal in both a suit Haemonetics filed in 2005 and a follow-on suit it filed in 2009. Haemonetics had said that two pieces of Fenwal technology infringed on its ’983 patent, and judge Gorton said that “the Court finds that neither of Fenwal’s devices infringes the ’983 patent.”

Braintree-based Haemonetics had initially won a victory and was to receive a $15.7 million settlement from Fenwal from the 2005 suit, following a judgement in 2009. That judgement was overturned on appeal. According to the website MassDevice, Fenwal modified its blood separation device, which led Haemonetics to file the 2009 lawsuit.

In August of 2010, Haemonetics formed a deal to provide its new blood management business intelligence portal, IMPACT Online, to member hospitals of Consorta Inc., a health-care group purchasing organization. Earlier that year, Haemonetics announced plans to lay off about 170 employees, following its $61 million acquisition of health care information technology company Global Med Technologies Inc. The integration was also to result in the closing of facilities in Phoenix and Chicago.