$41 Million Patent Infringement Verdict Awarded in Contact Lens Case

MARSHALL, Texas � A federal court jury in Marshall, Texas, has awarded more than $41 million to Pennsylvania-based Rembrandt Vision Technologies, L.P., in a patent infringement lawsuit against Georgia-based CIBA Vision Corp.

Rembrandt filed suit in 2005 against contact lens maker CIBA after asserting that CIBA infringed a soft contact lens patent originally issued in 1998 � U.S. Patent No. 5,712,327. Rembrandt holds the patent under an agreement with the research team of Dr. Sing-Hsiung "Mike" Change and Mei-Zyh "May" Chang.

The patent pertains to a contact lens surface treatment that allows users to wear their contact lenses for extended periods. Jurors found that CIBA infringed Rembrandt's '327 patent in its Focus Night and Day and O2Optix soft contact lenses. The verdict of $41,083,853 represents a 6 to 7 percent royalty on past sales of Focus Night and Day and O2Optix.

The verdict was delivered Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2008, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Marshall Division. Jurors reached their decision following four days of testimony before Magistrate Judge Chad Everingham.

Rembrandt was represented by Fish & Richardson attorneys Thomas M. Melsheimer (lead trial counsel) from the firm's Dallas office; Frank Porcelli from the Boston office; and Timothy Devlin from the Wilmington, Del., office. Rembrandt also was represented by Tyler, Texas, attorney Robert M. Parker; Otis Carroll of Tyler's Ireland, Carroll & Kelley, P.C.; S. Calvin Capshaw of the Longview, Texas, office of Brown McCarroll, L.L.P.; and Franklin Jones Jr. of Marshall's Jones & Jones Inc., P.C.

The case is styled Rembrandt Vision Technologies, L.P. v. CIBA Vision Corporation, 2:05-cv-00491.