Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) (plaintiff) logged a
complaint against Virtus Pharmaceuticals (defendant) for patent infringement
in the U.S. District Court of Wisconsin (case no. 3:12-cv-00914) on Wednesday, December 12, 2012.
Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation is a university
intellectual property organization that patents the discoveries of the
University of Wisconsin-Madison scientific community. It administers the
university’s patents and manages their intellectual property portfolio. Virtus Pharmaceuticals is a specialty
pharmaceutical company focused on the development and marketing of prescription
products to pharmaceutical wholesalers, chain drug stores, and other retail
merchants in the U.S.
The patent US6528542 involved in this suit is assigned to
WARF (as per face page). The patent entitled Calcium formate for use as a dietary supplement was issued on March
04 2003 and expires[i] by
December 22, 2019. The patent describes methods of increasing dietary calcium
in a patient.
Women’s Choice Pharmaceuticals is a sub-licensee of the ‘542
patent. They market a pre-natal vitamin supplement under the brand name Nestabs. According to the complaint,
defendant also markets a product that is identical in formulation to the
Nestabs product. Defendant’s pre-natal supplements including V-Natal Tabs and V-Natal DHA (V-Natal
products) infringe the above patent. The complaint says the product is labeled
with the 14 active ingredients in the same amount as licensed in the Nestabs
product. V-Natal is used to treat or prevent vitamin
deficiency due to poor diet, certain illnesses, etc. V-Natal DHA is used to
treat or prevent lack of vitamins, minerals, and fatty acids during pregnancy due
to poor diet or certain illnesses.
WARF has individually filed a suit (3:12-cv-00897) against WH Nutritionals on July 12,
2012 recently, which is pending.
If you are interested in knowing more about the cases filed
by WARF, please contact us.
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[i] Expected
expiration date. Patent Term Estimator is a free web-based tool
that automatically calculates patent terms and expiration dates for U.S.
utility patents.
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