© Reuters. File Photo: The Johnson & Johnson logo displayed on a screen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, USA, May 29, 2019. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
blake britten
(Reuters) – Alcon (NYSE:) Vision LLC will pay Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:)’s J&J Surgical Vision $199 million to cover the companies’ legal battle over intellectual property related to laser eye surgery devices. Once resolved, Alcon said in a statement. Sunday’s press release.
Alcon said the two companies had reached a mutual licensing agreement after resolving “various intellectual property disputes around the world” in a single payment.
A representative for Johnson & Johnson did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday about the settlement.
A document was filed in Delaware federal court this week over allegations that Alcon stole software from J&J’s iFS laser system, used it for LASIK vision correction and other surgeries, and used it in Alcon’s LenSx system to treat cataracts. A trial was to begin. J&J experts argued that the company at least had the right to claim him $3.1 billion in damages.
The companies also accused each other of patent infringement in claims pending by a Delaware court.
Based in New Brunswick (NYSE:), New Jersey, J&J’s Catalys laser cataract surgery system competes with LenSx.
AMO Development LLC, which J&J acquired in 2017, sued Alcon for stealing thousands of lines of source code in 2020. In its 2021 court filings, Alcon committed “theft and deception on a grand and shocking scale, not of actual disputes between publicly traded companies, but of the type usually found in paperback novels and Hollywood movies.” accused of doing so.
J&J said Alcon left “smoking guns” in the code that indicated the plagiarism, including typos identical to J&J’s code and comments from before LenSx development began.
U.S. District Judge Colm Connolly said at a 2021 hearing that there was “overwhelming” evidence that Alcon intentionally copied J&J’s code.
Alcon, headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, denied the allegations.
The case is AMO Development LLC v. Alcon Vision LLC, United States District Court for the District of Delaware, No. 1:20-cv-00842.