A California federal judge ruled that Leica Microsystems Inc. did not infringe a patent held by the University of Michigan, which pertains to a new method for measuring fluorescence in microscopy.
On Thursday, U.S. District Judge William H. Orrick granted summary judgment to Leica, siding with the company on the interpretation of key claim language in U.S. Patent No. 7,277,169. Judge Orrick concluded that Leica’s Stellaris and SP8 microscope models, which were accused of infringement, did not include the term “said supercontinuum,” a critical element of the patent’s claim.
Judge Orrick stated that “no reasonable jury could find that the accused products infringe on the ‘169 patent” because the accused microscopes did not meet the specific language of the claim related to the supercontinuum.
Leica had previously sought to challenge the patent’s validity before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), but the board denied the company’s request to invalidate the claims. Following a lawsuit filed by the University of Michigan in 2019, Leica appealed the PTAB’s decision to the Federal Circuit, which upheld the PTAB’s findings, stating that there was “substantial evidence” supporting the board’s ruling.
