We secured a unanimous jury verdict against Magnolia’s sole competitor in the market for initial specimen diversion devices

Davis Polk served as lead trial counsel to Magnolia Medical Technologies in patent litigation brought against Magnolia’s sole competitor, Kurin. On December 16, after a one-week trial, an eight-person jury unanimously found that Kurin infringed all 12 asserted claims across three Magnolia patents; that Magnolia is entitled to nearly $1.6 million in damages (at a rate of $1.25 per unit); that Magnolia’s asserted patents were not invalid; and that Magnolia did not infringe Kurin’s patent. The next day, the court ruled in Magnolia’s favor on Kurin’s inequitable conduct defense, finding that Kurin had failed to show an intent to deceive the Patent Office.

This is a significant strategic victory that validates Magnolia as pioneering the medical device market for initial specimen diversion devices, used to diagnose sepsis, a life-threatening blood infection. Magnolia initially sued Kurin in 2024 in the Southern District of California for patent infringement relating to the manufacture and sale of the Kurin Jet device for preventing blood culture contamination. The case was subsequently transferred to the District of Delaware, where Kurin counterclaimed for infringement of its own patent and contended that Magnolia’s patents were invalid and unenforceable. The case proceeded to a joint trial on both sides’ patents, where Magnolia won a complete victory.

The Davis Polk trial team representing Magnolia was led by partners Ashok Ramani and Micah G. Block, and included associates Serge A. Voronov, David (Zhikun) Jiang, Elaine M. Andersen, Keon Zemoudeh, Natalie Stoecklein and Elazar Chertow. Members of the Davis Polk team are based in the Northern California and New York offices.

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