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09/20/2004
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ViaCell, Inc., a cellular therapy company dedicated to enabling the widespread application of human cells as medicine, announced today that a Federal Court in Delaware overturned in its entirety an earlier judgment against ViaCell because PharmaStem failed to prove infringement of its patents No. 5,004,681 and 5,195,553. The Court also denied PharmaStem's request for a permanent injunction. As a result of the Court's actions, ViaCell will pay no damages to PharmaStem. The Court entered judgment for ViaCell on one patent and directed further proceedings on the other patent.
"We are very pleased with the court's decision to overturn the jury's verdict," said Marc Beer, CEO of ViaCell. "It has been our contention from the beginning that the verdict was contrary to the evidence presented at the trial. ViaCell has always been committed to maintaining the highest levels of ethical conduct in its business, and we believe that this ruling affirms this. In overturning the judgment, the court further ruled that the cord blood is owned by the family and because ViaCell only provides services to assist the family, it does not infringe. This means that any individual, corporation, or institution providing services to assist a family in preserving the cord blood does not infringe PharmaStem's patents. The ruling supports the industry and the rapid proliferation of cord blood stem cell research."
Beer further stated, "When selecting a cord blood banking service, families should make that choice based on the commitment to science and quality and the experience of the company."
Furthermore, as previously announced, in September, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) decided to re-examine both PharmaStem patents based on "substantial question of patentability" due to the existence of prior art. Prior to this, in 2003, the European Patent Office (EPO) confirmed an earlier revocation of PharmaStem's patents.
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