Texas universities sue J&J subsidiary over biodegradable fibres
A group of 14 educational institutions in Texas and biotech company TissueGen have sued a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson for infringing two patents covering biodegradable fibres.
TissueGen and the Board of Regents of the University of Texas System filed the complaint against Ethicon on Wednesday, November 15, at the US District Court for the Western District of Texas, Austin Division.
“For the avoidance of doubt, University of Texas System neither waives its sovereign immunity nor consents to any suit or proceeding filed separate from this action, including but not limited to any declaratory judgment action or inter partes review,” said the suit.
The board is the governing body of the University Texas System, which is a collection of educational institutions.
The plaintiffs alleged that Ethicon has infringed US patent numbers 6,596,296 and 7,033,603, both of which relate to drug-releasing biodegradable fibres used in the delivery of therapeutics. The board owns the patents.
TissueGen is the developer of Elute fibre—which is used for advanced drug delivery, nerve regeneration, and tissue engineering—and is the exclusive licensee of the two patents.
Kevin Nelson, TissueGen’s founder, developed the fibre while working at the University of Texas at Arlington.
In 2000, Nelson founded TissueGen to commercialise the product and, according to the claim, the work led to several issued patents, which were ultimately assigned to the University of Texas System and licensed exclusively to TissueGen.
Ethicon has allegedly infringed the patents through the sale of its coated Vicryl Plus antibacterial product range.
The universities are seeking profits, injunctive relief, and a jury trial.
In April, LSIPR reported that the board of regents and cancer research company Gensetix filed a patent complaint against Baylor College of Medicine, Diakonos Research and an inventor called William Decker.
The complaint alleged that the defendants had infringed two of the board’s patents which cover cancer treatment technology.
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