Johnson & Johnson Division Attempts Final Appeal In Effort To Overturn Multiple USPTO Decisions Issued In DECN’s Favor

LOS ANGELES, CA--(Marketwired - March 31, 2015) - Decision Diagnostics Corp. (OTC PINK: DECN), the manufacturer, quality plan administrator and the exclusive worldwide sales, service and regulatory processes agent for the popular GenStrip™ 50, the FDA cleared Green Glucose Test Strip, specifically designed to work with the market leading Johnson & Johnson’s LifeScan OneTouch Ultra family of glucose testing meters, today announced that Lifescan/J&J has filed its final appeal in the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (the patent appeals court), in an effort to overturn an IPR (USPTO court) decision by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office that Pharma Tech proved that all of the claims in J&J/Lifescan’s U.S. Patent 7,250,105, are unpatentable.

In late 2012 Pharma Tech introduced a dynamic blood glucose test strip offering the diabetic patient a superior and significantly less expensive product option. Lifescan, the dominant market leader responded to a future competitive threat in September 2011 by filing a patent infringement lawsuit in advance of product availability or approval that was later modified to include an additional patent and a request for a preliminary injunction. According to the company, despite questionable and unethical legal tactics, that included the use of a fraudulent legal expert, the higher courts have consistently supported Pharma Tech and its legal contentions against J&J/Lifescan.

Keith Berman, Principal Executive Officer of Decision Diagnostics commented, “Johnson & Johnson/Lifescan has, not surprisingly, chosen to continue its illegitimate campaign to deprive the diabetic public the opportunity to purchase a superior glucose test strip at a considerably reduced price. Despite repeated legal losses that have effectively neutralized U.S. Patent 7,250,105, Johnson & Johnson/Lifescan have now opted to exhaust their final remaining legal option two weeks after we rejected their unacceptable settlement offers. Therefore, it is our opinion and that of outside legal experts that this course is not being pursued by Johnson & Johnson/Lifescan with the intent of overturning the lower court decisions; it is simply a continuation of their ‘charred earth’ legal strategy. They are intentionally manipulating the legal system to delay an inevitable final decision through tactics that include repeated delays, and lengthy appeals, despite the courts clarity and specificity in their learned decisions.”

Lifescan from the outset had been eminently aware of the fragility of their legal patent position. Their only victorious path lay not in a court’s decision, but through the protraction of the process in an attempt to force capitulation. Their plan combined restricting the sale of GenStrip through a preliminary injunction (subsequently overturned) with prolonged patent infringement litigation, thereby forcing Pharma Tech to burn precious capital in its legal defense.

Mr. Berman continued, “We have long understood that J&J’s ultimate goal was never to win a resounding legal victory in the prosecution of its indefensible legal position. The repeated court decisions have been consistently clear and extensively detailed. They have upheld Pharma Tech’s legal right to manufacture and sell GenStrip while consistently maintaining that it’s having done so has never, in any way, infringed on J&J/Lifescan’s bellweather patent. We have repeatedly stated that position, the courts have consistently sustained it and Lifescan knows it. Their intent was never to beat us in court but to prevent us from selling the product while forcing us to allocate company resources for a legal defense of this spurious suit. However, it is important to note that, just as they have failed in court, they have abysmally failed in their strategy. We will continue the battle to its now inevitable and imminent conclusion, GenStrip will prevail, and Pharma Tech will expend any and all resources necessary to do so.”

Forward-Looking Statements:

This release contains forward-looking statements about our business or financial condition that reflect our assumptions and beliefs based on information currently available. We can give no assurance that the expectations indicated by such forward-looking statements will be realized. There may be other risks and circumstances that we are unable to predict. When used in this release, words such as “believes,” “expects,” “forecasts,” “intends,” “projects,” “plans,” “anticipates,” “estimates,” “will” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, although there may be certain statements not accompanied by such expressions.

For further information about the Pharma Tech GenStrip™ 50, please visit the company’s Web Sites: http://www.decisiondiagnostics.com or http://www.pharmatechdirect.com or http://www.new-genstrip.com.

GenStrip™ 50 test strips are a product of Pharma Tech Solutions, Inc., and are not manufactured, distributed, endorsed, or approved by nor associated with LifeScan, Inc. a Johnson & Johnson company, manufacturers and distributors of the OneTouch Ultra family of meters and OneTouch Ultra test strips.