3M announced today that the High Court of the United Kingdom ("U.K.")
not only reaffirmed a prior judgment granting 3M a decisive victory in a
London trial proceeding, but also further awarded 3M litigation fees and
costs in the case. The case concerns 3M's decision to cease its support
for BacLite, a product it acquired from Acolyte Biomedica Limited
("Acolyte") in 2007. 3M has now prevailed on virtually every important
issue of the dispute.
Porton Technology Fund, Porton Capital, Inc. (together, "Porton") and
Ploughshare Innovations Limited, a subsidiary of the U.K. Ministry of
Defence (collectively "Claimants"), investors in Acolyte, filed a
lawsuit in December 2008 against 3M seeking approximately $40 million in
damages. A 24-day bench trial occurred from June 15 – July 18, 2011.
Today, the High Court reaffirmed a decision, dated November 7, 2011,
that Claimants will receive only $1.3 million in damages (to be
converted to pounds sterling at the exchange rate effective July 9,
2010), plus interest.
Because the final judgment of $1.3 million was for an amount less than
3M had offered to settle the matter before trial, the High Court
ordered Claimants to pay the litigation fees and costs that 3M incurred
in the lawsuit after March 3, 2011. In addition, because 3M prevailed on
most of the issues disputed at trial, the High Court also
denied Claimants 25 percent of the fees and costs they incurred before
March 3, 2011. While the actual amount of the fees and costs to be paid
will be determined in later proceedings, these findings mean that 3M
will likely receive a net payment from Claimants after appropriate
offsets.
"The court's final order underscores a decisive victory for our company
and the positions it took relative to this technology," says Maureen A.
Harms, 3M assistant general counsel and general counsel for the
company's Healthcare Business.
The U.K. High Court also denied Claimants' request for permission to
appeal.
Significantly, while the order resolves the claims in the U.K. High
Court, a defamation lawsuit filed by 3M is going forward. The federal
court in Washington, D.C. issued an opinion on February 2, 2012, that
3M's defamation claims against lawyer and public relations advisor Lanny
Davis survived Davis' motion to dismiss and, in a matter of first
impression, rejected Davis' attempt to use the District of Columbia's
Anti-SLAPP Act (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) in
federal court.
The opinion from U.S. District Court Judge Robert L.