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Sexing Technologies (ST) d/b/a STgenetics, a world leader and innovator in bovine genetics, announces that verdicts have been received in the lawsuit initiated by ABS Global in 2014 concerning ST’s patents and other proprietary rights.
On August 11 and 12, the jury in a Madison, Wisc., court returned verdicts that Genus ABS’s developmental Genus Sexed Semen (GSS) sperm sorting technology infringes two valid patents of ST; that ABS violated confidentiality obligations to ST and materially breached the parties’ semen sorting services agreement by misappropriating semen sorting media protocols obtained from ST’s subsidiary, XY; and that ABS must pay substantial damages to ST in the form of upfront royalties and running royalties on any future sales of sexed semen that may eventually be produced by the GSS system. Prior to trial, Genus and ABS stipulated to theft of XY’s trade secret semen sorting protocols, and a portion of the damage awarded by the jury was to compensate XY for that theft.
Prior to these verdicts, on August 10, the Madison jury returned a verdict that ST is not liable to ABS on ABS’s antitrust claim of monopolization under the federal Sherman Act. The jury found that ST had not unlawfully prevented ABS from entering the field of semen sexing or otherwise injured ABS in any way. The jury made several subsidiary findings in its verdict, including the finding that sexed semen processing is subject to a lawfully acquired monopoly by ST; that certain of ST’s semen sorting contract terms have anti-competitive effect but that ABS was not injured by any such terms; and that ST has lawfully acquired its portfolio of more than 200 patents worldwide on various aspects of semen sorting.
The parties are awaiting further rulings from the Madison court that will determine the full outcome of the case, all of which will be subject to potential appeals before the outcome of the case is final. In the meantime, ST intends to preserve, protect and defend its diverse intellectual property portfolio covering a broad array of technology in the fields of flow cytometry, cell sorting and analysis, and semen sexing.
After the trial, ST’s Co-CEO, Juan Moreno, stated, “ST is proud to continue to supply the highest fertility sexed semen in the marketplace with its exclusive SexedULTRA™ and SexedULTRA
PLUS products. The results of the SexedULTRA™ products have been corroborated in the field with large-scale field trials in multiple countries and by thousands of users around the world. We are excited about the benefits generated by creating heifer calves out of one’s best cows.”
