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Federal Court Rules in Favor of Magnolia Medical in False Advertising Suit Brought by Kurin

NEW YORK ─ Blood collection device company Magnolia Medical Technologies said on Thursday that the US District Court for the Southern District of California ruled in its favor in a false advertising lawsuit brought by its competitor San Diego-based Kurin.

Magnolia said the court found that its product claims were not false or misleading and did not misrepresent the effectiveness of its competitor's Kurin Lock device, a blood collection system similar to Magnolia's.

The court further found that Magnolia's use of controlled clinical study results in its advertising is appropriate and that the studies accurately reflect the effectiveness of its Steripath blood culture collection system, Magnolia said.

The company noted that the court said it accurately cited clinical studies in support of its claims that Steripath has demonstrated a 92 percent and 93 percent reduction in contamination rate, and that its advertising appropriately stated that Steripath "virtually eliminates" blood culture contamination.

Greg Bullington, Magnolia's CEO, said in a statement that the company "was forced to defend against this unfounded lawsuit for over two years at very significant expense. However, as we believe the market recognizes, the real fight between Magnolia and Kurin is in federal court in Delaware, where Magnolia has unilaterally asserted patent infringement of three separate Magnolia patents against Kurin."

In response to Magnolia's statement on Thursday, Kurin CEO Bob Rogers said in an email that "over the years, Magnolia has displayed a pattern of exaggeration and this press release is another example. The release is itself misleading with respect to the court’s opinion, and fails to mention key findings made by the US District Court."

In particular, he said, "Magnolia fails to mention that the court found that certain statements made by Magnolia regarding the efficacy of its Steripath product are literally false."

He added, "Kurin continues to maintain that Magnolia has made materially false and misleading representations about its product, and will continue to pursue relief in court where necessary and appropriate."

The dispute began in May 2018 when Kurin sued Magnolia for allegedly making false claims about the efficacy and regulatory status of Steripath.

In August 2018, Magnolia announced it had filed a countersuit against Kurin alleging unfair competition and false advertising.

In March 2019, Magnolia amended a complaint to allege that Kurin is infringing four Magnolia patents.