In a unanimous ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against Fitchburg-based Promega Corp. in a patent infringement case, according to the Associated Press.
At issue was the extent of U.S. patent law in international markets. The justices ruled that it was not a violation of patent law for the California-based Life Technologies Corp. to ship a single part of a patented invention for assembly in another country.
Life Technologies, which was acquired in 2014 by Thermo Fisher Scientific, supplied an enzyme used in DNA analysis kits to a plant in London and combined it with several other components to make kits sold worldwide.
That prompted Promega to file a lawsuit, contending the kits infringed on a U.S. patent.
As the case worked its way through the courts, a jury had awarded $52 million in damages to Promega, but U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb set aside the verdict and ruled the law did not cover export of a single component. The Supreme Court eventually decided to hear the case.
