Caliper Life Sciences Inc. (NSDQ:CALP) settled its patent infringement beef with a recent Becton, Dickinson & Co. (NYSE:BDX) acquisition by striking a deal to license its microfluidics technology to BD.
The Hopkinton, Mass.-based lab equipment maker agreed to license the patent portfolio to Franklin Lakes, N.J.-based BD for an undisclosed amount, thereby settling a lawsuit filed by HandyLab Inc. in the U.S. District Court for Eastern Michigan.
HandyLab had sued Caliper in August last year, seeking to establish through a jury trial that its Raider and Jaguar nucleic acid extraction and microfluidic real-time PCR instruments and reagents do not infringe patents held by Caliper. According to court documents, Caliper sent letters to HandyLab alleging the infringement. BD, which houses its ophthalmic division in Waltham, Mass., bought Ann Arbor, Mich.-based HandyLab in October, 2009, for $275 million.
Caliper CEO Kevin Hrusovsky said the deal with BD takes the number of companies licensing its microfluidics technology, for which it holds upwards of 350 patents, to more than a dozen.
Caliper managed to narrow its net loss by more than 37 percent during the third quarter, despite a top-line slide of nearly 6 percent. The company reported revenues of $32.2 million during the three months ended Sept. 30, 2009, down 5.5 percent compared with $34 million during the same period during the prior year. Net losses for the quarter were $3.4 million, down 37.4 percent compared with $5.4 million during the third quarter of 2008.