A U.S. judge has upheld a patent for Merck & Co.'s best-selling product, the asthma and allergy medication Singulair, handing Merck a victory in its battle to ward off early generic competition for the drug.

Wednesday's ruling by Judge Garrett Brown in federal court in Trenton, N.J., means that Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., the Israeli generics manufacturer that challenged the Singulair patent, won't be able to start selling copycat versions in the U.S. until the expiration of patent protection in 2012. Teva could, however, appeal the decision in an effort to sell copies before then.

Singulair was the ninth best-selling prescription drug in the world last year, according to drug-data provider IMS Health. For the six months ended June 30, world-wide sales rose 6% to $2.3 billion. U.S. sales--those directly at stake in the Teva patent dispute--rose 6% to $1.5 billion in the first half of 2009.

Many analysts and legal observers thought Merck had the upper hand in the case because Singulair was an innovative approach to treating asthma when it hit the market in 1998.

But at a February trial in Trenton, Teva lawyers argued that the patent for Singulair was invalid because prior research would have taught anyone skilled in the art of drug development how to invent Singulair. Under patent law, so-called prior art can be grounds for invalidating a patent's claims. Teva also argued the patent was unenforceable because Merck misled the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office when it applied for the patent.

A federal court has awarded TiVo $103 million plus interest in its long-running patent dispute with EchoStar Communications and ordered EchoStar to disable infringing features found on its subscribers' digital video recorders.

U.S. District Judge David Folsom on Tuesday also found EchoStar, which is now part of Dish Network, in contempt of court for violating a permanent injunction by reprogramming millions of DVRs with a new "workaround."

"The harm caused to TiVo by EchoStar's contempt is substantial," Folsom wrote. "EchoStar has gained millions of customers since this court's injunction was issued, customers that are now potentially unreachable by TiVo."

Englewood, Colo.-based Dish, which has roughly 13.6 million subscribers, said in a statement it would appeal the contempt ruling and file a motion to stay an order that requires it to disable the disputed DVR features within 30 days.

"Our engineers spent close to a year designing around TiVo's patent and removed the very features that TiVo said infringed at trial," the company said. "Existing Dish Network customers with DVRs are not immediately impacted by these recent developments."

The Alviso, Calif.-based maker of set-top boxes applauded the decision.

"We are extremely gratified by the court's well reasoned and thorough decision, in which it rejected EchoStar's attempted workaround claim regarding the TiVo patent, found EchoStar to be in contempt of court, and ordered the permanent injunction fully enforced," TiVo said in a statement. "EchoStar may attempt to further delay this case but we are very pleased the court has made it clear that there are major ramifications for continued infringement."

The European Commission is expected to make one of the most significant antitrust decisions in its history on Wednesday when it punishes computer chip-maker Intel for stifling competition from smaller rivals.


The official line is that the case is still ongoing, but one person close to the competition department said on condition of anonymity on Friday that the 27 commissioners will conclude the case, which has been under investigation since 2000, at their next weekly meeting on Wednesday. Intel is the latest giant from the IT industry to be slapped down by Europe's top competition regulator. Like Microsoft five years ago and IBM in the 1980s, Intel claims it is simply doing what any company would, only better. While IBM settled with the regulator, agreeing to change the way it competed in the market for mainframe computers, Microsoft and Intel have stuck to their guns. Consequently Microsoft was fined [euro]497 million (US$663.4 million) for abusing its dominant position in the software market, plus an additional [euro]1.2 billion for failing to respect the antitrust ruling.

Sun Microsystems shareholders filed three separate lawsuits last month in an effort to halt the company's pending sale to Oracle, according to a filing Sun made with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission Friday. The suits, filed in Santa Clara County, California, superior court, name Sun, some of its officials and Oracle as defendants. All three actions are aimed at blocking the US$7.4 billion sale, alleging the price tag is "unfair and inadequate." The defendants have yet to file answers to the complaints, according to Sun. More information about the lawsuits wasn't immediately available.

The ITC imposed the ban in June 2007 because it found that some Qualcomm chips infringed on a battery-saving technology patent owned by Broadcom Corp., a rival maker of cell phone chips. The ban was stayed in September 2007 by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, pending appeal.

In its opinion Tuesday, the court said the ITC lacked the authority to ban the imports of phones made by companies such as Motorola Inc. and Samsung Electronics Corp., even if their phones included Qualcomm chips. It sent the case back to the commission.

"Qualcomm is very pleased with the Court's opinion," said Don Rosenberg, executive vice president and general counsel of Qualcomm. "In effect, the Court has disapproved Broadcom's tactic of attacking the wireless industry, including handset manufacturers and wireless operators, without providing them with the opportunity to defend themselves in the action."

Broadcom spokesman Bill Blanning said the company was pleased that the appeals court affirmed the validity of its patent and that it had been infringed.

"We look forward to addressing this issue upon remand to the ITC. We will continue to pursue other avenues for enforcement against infringement of our intellectual property by Qualcomm," Blanning said.

Qualcomm shares fell $1.98, or 4.7 percent, to $40.32 on Tuesday. Broadcom shares fell $1.27, or 7.8 percent, to $15.10.

GPS Industries, Inc. the world's leading provider of WiFi-enabled golf management systems, announced today that it has filed suit for patent infringement in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois against ProLink Holdings Corp. (OTC Bulletin Board: PLKH), ProLink Solutions, LLC, ABC National Television Sales, Inc., and LinksCorp, Inc. The suit alleges infringement of U.S. Patent No. 5,685,786, which relates to on-screen display of centrally transmitted advertising and tournament standings information. GPSI has also asserted U.S. Patent No. 5,438,518, which relates to the Company's position-based hole advance and screen scrolling technology. The Complaint also alleges that the ProLink companies have made false representations in the marketplace and in connection with financing activities that they own rights in the '518 patent, when in fact they hold no interest in the patent are not authorized to utilize the technology it covers.

David Chessler, CEO of GPS Industries, offered the following comments: "Today's filing is an important step in our strategy to establish the Company's patent rights through the court system and to clear up the confusion ProLink has attempted to create in the marketplace. Our management team and key investors are committed to pursuing this legal strategy to a successful outcome. GPS Industries has invested millions of dollars in its intellectual patent portfolio. We have a responsibility to our investors and shareholders to vigorously defend these patents against any infringing parties."

The U.K. High Court said Nokia Corp., the world's largest mobile phone maker by sales, had not infringed two patents regarding GSM mobile phone standards.

Qualcomm Inc. has been trying to bring an injunction against Nokia that would prevent it from selling products using the GSM patents in the U.K. GSM, or Global System for Mobile Communications, is the world's dominant second-generation mobile phone technology standard.

Qualcomm, which has filed 11 lawsuits around the world against Nokia in the past two years, has failed to win over the courts in its fight the Finnish handset maker.

"We are pleased with the Court's decision that the patent claims are invalid and believe it is consistent with and supported by the facts," said Nokia Chief Financial Officer Rick Simonson. "This is the second court to conclude that Qualcomm does not have relevant and valid GSM patents."

Last week, the U.S. International Trade Commission turned down Qualcomm's petition for a review of an earlier decision, which said Nokia hadn't infringed on three patents, as claimed by Qualcomm.

The two mobile phone-technology giants have tussled in court over patent-licensing agreements that expired in April last year. Qualcomm charges patent royalties to mobile phone makers, which Nokia and some other companies say are excessive.

Richard Windsor, an analyst at Japanese investment bank Nomura said that the focus now shifts to a Delaware Court and a 3G patent dispute, where arguments are expected to begin this summer.

"Qualcomm is weak in GSM and we think it has been deploying a strategy of firing out legal long-shots," said Windsor. "The hope is that a victory in one of these cases will bring Nokia to the negotiating table, but, so far, it's not achieved this."

"The main focus now is going to be the Delaware case in July," said Windsor. "However, it's our view that Qualcomm is unlikely to prevail in that case either."

Andrew Gilbert, president of Qualcomm in Europe, said the British court's decision was "not devastating."

EBay Inc. said Thursday it has settled a long-running patent dispute over features on its Web site that allowed customers to purchase items without using the company's popular auction service.

The dispute with MercExchange LLC revolved around the "buy it now" feature used on eBay's site. The company was sued over the matter in 2001 and saw the case wind all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which issued a decision that resulted to changes in how patent owners can block use of their patents. See full story.

In a statement Thursday, eBay said it reached a settlement with MercExchange -- as patent holding firm -- to dismiss all claims under the lawsuit.

Under the terms of the settlement, eBay said it will buy three patents involved in the case as well as some additional technologies. Financial terms were not disclosed, though the company said the settlement will not affect its results or outlook for 2008.