Jury says Invisalign infringes Ormco patent

Jun 25, 2009

A jury has ruled in favor of Ormco, a subsidiary of Danaher, in its patent infringement case against Align Technology, the company announced.

The jury unanimously found that Align's process for creating its Invisalign aligners infringed several claims of a patent (U.S. Patent No. 6,616,444) held by Ormco, the company said. The claims at issue cover a process for creating 3D representations of a patient's teeth for use in modeling tooth movement.

In addition to finding that Align infringed the patent claims asserted by Ormco, the jury rejected Align's assertions that the claims at issue in the lawsuit were invalid and unenforceable, Ormco said in a press release.

The jury only determined liability, Align noted in its own press release; any monetary damages will be determined in a later trial. The verdict does not currently preclude Align from selling its Invisalign System.

Following the entry of the judgment on the verdict, Ormco will be entitled to request the court issue a permanent injunction to enjoin Align's continued infringement and seek a reasonable royalty on all of the U.S. sales made since January 2003 by Align of its Invisalign aligners.

Align said it believes the facts and the law "do not support the jury's findings of infringement and validity." The company said it will seek to overturn the verdict in post-trial motions with the district court. If the district court does not grant Align's motions, the company intends to vigorously challenge the verdict through an appeal to the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals.