Sperm Cell Patent Fight|Filings Sent to Colorado

WASHINGTON (CN) - A federal judge ordered a subpoena involved in a major patent dispute over livestock sperm cell separation technology to be transferred to Colorado, where the case is being litigated.

XY LLC, a company that owns patents for separated sperm cells which are used to control the gender of livestock offspring, sued its competitor, Trans Ova Genetics, in U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado last year for patent infringement.

Trans Ova countersued, claiming that XY violated antitrust laws by monopolizing the U.S. market "for technology relating to the sorting of non-human, mammalian semen by sex," according to U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper's ruling.

XY served the company planning to acquire Trans Ova, Intrexon Corporation, with a subpoena in Federal Court near Intrexon's Maryland-based headquarters.

Intrexon moved to quash the subpoena, and XY subsequently filed a motion to move the argument back to Colorado.

Judge Cooper agreed with an advisory committee, stating that "the Court in reaching its decision has consulted with the magistrate judge handling discovery in the Colorado litigation, who concurs that, given the complexity and posture of the underlying case, the interests of judicial efficiency would be served by transferring this dispute to the District of Colorado."

According to the ruling, Intrexon moved to quash the subpoena because "it does not possess the requested documents and that, in any event, the subpoena calls for trade secrets and other proprietary and privileged information."

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