International law firm McDermott Will & Emery LLP today achieved a complete trial victory for Firm clients the Seikagaku Corporation and Zimmer, Inc. in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts.
The McDermott trial team, lead by Boston-based partners Sarah Columbia, who also heads the Firm’s Intellectual Property Litigation Practice Group, and Michael Kendall, head of McDermott’s international White-Collar & Securities Defense Practice Group, secured a verdict of non-infringement on all asserted claims of patent infringement against Seikagaku and Zimmer. The jury also found the patent claims invalid as obvious.
In April 2011, the Genzyme Corporation, a subsidiary of Sanofi-Aventis, filed a lawsuit against Seikagaku and Zimmer Inc. alleging that Seikagaku’s product, Gel-One® which is distributed by Zimmer, Inc. in the United States, infringed Genzyme’s patent related to the method of using a single injection of hyaluronic acid to treat osteoarthritis of the knee. Genzyme was seeking to block sales of Gel-One®, which is approved by the FDA for a single-injection treatment method.
In addition to Ms. Columbia and Mr. Kendall, the McDermott trial team included partners Melissa Nott Davis and Lauren Papenhausen as well as associates Hasan Rashid, K. Nicole Clouse and Karen Eisenstadt.
Seikagaku Corporation is a research and development oriented pharmaceutical company that aims to develop innovative pharmaceutical products with its main focus on glycoscience, which is the study of the complex carbohydrates on the surface of proteins and lipids.
Founded in 1927 and headquartered in Warsaw, Indiana, Zimmer designs, develops, manufactures and markets orthopaedic reconstructive, spinal and trauma devices, dental implants, and related surgical products. Zimmer has operations in more than 25 countries around the world and sells products in more than 100 countries.
