Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Texas court rules for Palomar over Candela in laser patent suit

By Mass High Tech Staff

The legal battle between two Massachusetts-based cosmetic laser systems makers being fought in Texas has been decided in favor of Palomar Medical Technologies Inc., according to both Palomar and the company that brought the patent suit against it, Candela Corp.

A jury in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas found that Burlington-based Palomar’s laser treatment products do not infringe on a Candela (Nasdaq: CLZR) patent, and further determined that the four claims at issue in the patent in question were invalid because of prior art.

Candela, based in Wayland, had asserted that eight Palomar handpieces when used with four different platform systems were infringing on three Candela Patents. Candela pulled two of the patents from the suit shortly before the trial began on Sept. 29, and reduced the amount of damages it was seeking, according to Palomar (Nasdaq: PMTI) officials.

According to Candela’s president and CEO Gerard Puorro, the company is considering its legal options going forward.

In the home state of both companies, there are still two pending patent suits — one bought by Candela and one by Palomar in U.S. District Court in Boston.

Palomar announced in March an amendment to its licensing deal for a hair-removal product it has with the Procter & Gamble Co., in which P&G would pay Palomar $1.25 million per quarter until the product is launched, followed by a deal based on the product’s sales.

In January, the company made a deal with Q-MED AB, a Swedish producer of dermal fillers, making the Swedish company Palomar’s exclusive distributor of cosmetic products outside of North America.

Palomar reported a 2007 profit of $20.5 million, with revenue of $123.8 million. Candela posted a loss of $9 million for fiscal 2008 on revenue of $148.2 million.