Patent suite against Aerocrine for exhaled nitric oxide | Apieron, Inc.

Online, November 27, 2009 (Newswire.com) - MENLO PARK, CALIF., Nov 18, 2009 - Apieron, Inc. has asked the court presiding over its patent suit against Aerocrine, Inc. to allow it to raise additional grounds for invalidating Aerocrine's broadest patent relating to exhaled nitric oxide, U.S. Patent No. 5,922,610.

In its motion, Apieron alleges that recently obtained deposition testimony and interrogatory responses indicate that Drs. Kjell Alving, Jan Lundberg, and Edward Weitzberg, inventors named on the '610 patent, were in possession of information material to the patentability of their invention-namely, the prior invention in the United States of the claimed subject matter by Dr. Benjamin M. Gaston-yet intentionally failed to disclose this information to the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

For its part, Aerocrine has asked the court to procedurally block Apieron from raising the new allegations, which it claims are not stated with the requisite specificity. Redacted versions of the parties' pleadings and exhibits are publicly available via the website of the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware.