In pretrial motions, the US District Court for the Northern District of California has granted summary judgment of noninfringement in favor of Nova Biomedical Corp, Waltham, Mass and against Abbott Diabetes Care, Alameda, Calif, in two US patents on blood glucose technology that were being put forth in a case brought against Nova by Abbott Diabetes Care and Abbott Laboratories.

The case involved four Abbott patents.

The court ruled that Nova’s blood glucose meters and strips, which allow diabetic patients to monitor their glucose levels throughout the day, do not infringe US patents 6,143,164 and 6,592,745—and that twelve of the asserted claims of the ‘745 patent are invalid.

Concerning a third patent in suit, No. 5,820,551, the court found Nova does not literally infringe the asserted claims, but allowed that there may be a factual issue, which could result in an allegation of infringement under the doctrine of equivalents.

Regarding the fourth patent in suit, No. 5,628,890, the court denied Nova’s motion for summary judgment of invalidity on the basis that there are questions of fact for trial, but in a separate ruling granted Nova’s motion to add to the case a “potentially meritorious” prior public use defense which could invalidate the Abbott patent.

Nova manufactures the Nova Max™ brand blood glucose monitor for home use, which provides a no-coding feature for the user. The company also manufactures the Stat Strip Glucose System™ for hospital use, a no-coding glucose meter and strip that measures and eliminates hematocrit-induced glucose error in hospital patients with abnormal hematocrit levels.