US court grants Lumenis preliminary injunction against Syneron

The injunction covers Syneron's Aurora devices when used with gel.

Laser surgical device company Lumenis (Nasdaq: LUME) has announced that the District Court in the Central District of California has granted a preliminary injunction against Syneron Medical Ltd. and Syneron Inc. to stop continuing infringement of its US patent number. 5,682,380. The injunction covers Syneron's Aurora devices when used with gel.

Avner Raz, the Chief Executive Officer of Lumenis said, "Lumenis' intellectual property, particularly our Intense Pulsed Light technology, is at the heart of our leadership in aesthetic and medical markets throughout the world. Lumenis will continue to enforce its intellectual property rights, as it has done in the past."

Syneron competes with Lumenis in the US market. Among its founders were former Lumenis employees. Lumenis has filed several suits against Syneron for unfair trading and patent infringement in relation to aesthetic surgery devices. In September 2002, Lumenis sued Syneron in the California court, claiming that Syneron had entered the market for sophisticated medical and aesthetic devices in breach of its trade secrets.

In response to Lumenis's announcement, Syneron issued a statement today saying that Lumenis had in fact been granted only one out of three injunctions that it sought.

"The US District Court for the Central District of California recently denied Lumenis’s motion for a preliminary injunction on two Lumenis patents, finding that Lumenis had failed to show a likelihood of infringement on two claims and that Syneron had shown that another claim may be invalid. The court did issue a very limited injunction that does not bar sales of the Aurora device, but does direct that gel not be used with the Aurora devices. The court’s ruling confirms that Syneron can continue to sell its Aurora devices in the US market," the statement said.

Syneron Medical CEO Moshe Mizrahy commented, “Syneron regrets that Lumenis has chosen to compete with our company through the courts rather than to compete in the marketplace.”

Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on July 20, 2003

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