Dueling Cases Separated By Eighty Minutes

A patent infringement case and declaratory judgment case on the same patent were filed within an hour and twenty minutes of each other, both in Boston.

 

At 3:55 p.m. on January 22, 2010 Argentum Medical, LLC (Willowbrook, IL) filed suit against Choice Therapeutics, Inc. (Wrentham, MA) and Global Medical Partners, LLC  (Wrentham, MA) asserting patent infringement of Patent No. 7,230,153 directed to an appliance having wound healing and analgesic properties.

 

Later that day, at 5:15 p.m., Choice and Global Medical filed suit against Argentum seeking a declaratory judgment that the ‘153 patent is invalid and not infringed.

 

The first case was assigned to Judge Woodlock, the second case was assigned to Chief Magistrate Judge Dein.  Given that the patentee as plaintiff case was filed first and was assigned to a district judge rather than a magistrate judge it seems likely that that case will take precedence, but it will be interesting to see how this mini “first-to-file” dispute works itself out.

 

Argentum Medical, LLC v. Choice Therapeutics, Inc. et. al., 10-cv-10100-DPW (D. Mass. Jan. 22, 2010)

 

Choice Therapeutics, Inc. et. al. v. Argentum Medical, LLC, 10-cv-10102-JGD (D. Mass. Jan. 22, 2010)