Lawsuit Reinstated Against Gen-Probe

A California judge reinstated a lawsuit against San Diego-based Gen-Probe Inc. and its founder over ownership of Gen-Probe patents for medical tests. Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Miller in San Diego said that the nonprofit Center for Neurologic Study can proceed with a suit demanding that Gen-Probe and company founder Dr. David Kohne return patents that he allegedly developed while working for the center. Miller had dismissed the suit in 1995, ruling that the center didn’t have the legal authority to sue. The center alleges that Kohne failed to tell it and the federal government that patents he took were developed during his 1979-1981 tenure at the center with funding from the federal National Institutes of Health. The center said it’s the rightful owner of the patents, worth tens of millions of dollars a year in revenue to Gen-Probe. “Dr. Kohne made his invention after he left CNS,” Gen-Probe Chief Executive Henry Nordhoff said. Gen-Probe said Kohne didn’t take anything developed at the center. Attorneys for Kohne weren’t available for comment.