Roche, Applera win enhanced damages from MJ Research:
This article was originally published in Clinica
Executive Summary
In a patent dispute over polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and thermal cycler technology dating back to 1998, Roche Diagnostics and Applera company Applied Biosystems have been granted enhanced damages from MJ Research, a company that is now owned by Bio-Rad. The district court in Connecticut doubled the damages previously awarded by a jury to the two companies to $35.4m plus attorney fees, saying that MJ Research displayed an exceptional degree of dismissiveness of patent rights and disrespect for the law. It ordered the enhanced damages "to punish this conduct and deter similar behaviour". Antitrust counterclaims by MJ Research were dismissed in December 2004.