Friday, January 23, 2009

SkinMedica Files Patent Lawsuit

San Diego-based SkinMedica, which develops cosmeceuticals for the skin care market, said today that it has filed a patent and trade secret action against competitors Histogen,Inc., Histogen Aesthetics, LLC, and Dr. Gail Naughton, founder, President, and CEO of Histogen. According to SkinMedica, those firms are infringing on two patents held by the firm, U.S. Patents 6,372,494 and 7,118,746. SkinMedica said that it is seeking relief for infringement on the patents and also for misappropriation of its trade secrets by the defendants. Naughton was a co-founder of Advanced Tissue Sciences, which went into bankruptcy in 2002; SkinMedica said it acquired several assets from ATS, including intellectual property that included the two patents. Both of the patents in the lawsuit name Naughton as an inventor of the patent.

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