Promega loses at U.S. Supreme Court

The disagreement between Life Technologies and Promega grew out of a licensing deal.
Bloomberg noted


Promega sold Life Technologies a license to make and sell genetic testing kits for specified law enforcement fields. Four years into the agreement, Promega sued, claiming Life Technologies was selling the kits to clinical and research markets outside the licensed fields.



The legal issue related to the meaning of a --substantial portion of the components of a patented invention --



Federal patent law says companies that don’t hold a license can be sued for supplying "from the United States all or a substantial portion of the components of a patented invention" that’s assembled and sold overseas.


The opinion by Justice Sotomayor indicated --a single component-- didn’t fulfill th definition of a "substantial portion."