Eppendorf Sues Nanosphere for Patent Infringement

HAMBURG, Oct. 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Eppendorf institutes legal proceedings against Nanosphere, Inc. in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware.

Eppendorf is suing the company for willful infringement of US patent 7,321,829, titled "Method for the identification and/or the quantification of a target compound obtained from a biological sample upon chips" and is seeking treble damages of substantial magnitude and reimbursement of legal fees.

The patent covers Eppendorf's Silverquant(R) microarray technology, offered in Eppendorf's Silverquant scanner and Silverquant detection kit used e.g. for Eppendorf's own microarrays. The technology is also licensed to two companies for commercialization with their microarrays.

"Eppendorf has invested heavily into the development of the Silverquant technology and the associated products over the past years. Consequently, we expect our Intellectual Property to be honored and will do what is necessary to protect our rights," added Sven Bulow, Managing Director of Eppendorf Biochip Systems GmbH.

Eppendorf AG was founded in Hamburg in 1945 and has more than 2,450 employees worldwide. The company has subsidiaries in 20 countries and is represented in all other markets by distributors.

In fiscal 2008, the company's sales revenues amounted to EUR 410 million with earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) of EUR 71.9 million.

Contact:

Jorn Peplow
Corporate Communications
Eppendorf AG
Barkhausenweg 1
22339 Hamburg, Germany
fon: +49-40-53801-194
fax: +49-40-53801-835
email: peplow.j@eppendorf.de