Pennsylvania-based Document Solutions Group(DSG) has settled a longstanding, patent infringement suit filed by St. Paul, Minn.-based technology company Datasci. Financial terms were not released.

"We are very pleased that this lawsuit is dismissed, and our current customer base and prospects will be excited to know that this lawsuit is behind us so we can put all our energies toward our customers and products in the life sciences industry,"stated DSG's chief executive officer, Tony Varano.

Datasci filed similar lawsuits against eClinical companies Phase Forward, Datatrak, etrials and DataLabs. Phase Forward settled for $8.5 million in the suit Datasci filed against the company in June 2004. In August 2006, DataLabs, which was acquired by ClinPhone in October 2006, settled its suit for an undisclosed amount and a nonexclusive licensing arrangement.

DataLabs cited the primary reason for its settlement agreement was because of the possibility of its customers getting sued, which Datasci was exploring at the time. DataTrak and etrials have not announced any settlements.

In 2002,the U.S. Federal Patent and Trade Mark Office awarded Mark L. Kozam, founder of Olney, Md.-based MLK Software a patent—6,496,827—for the:

“Methods and apparatus for the centralized collection and validation of geographically distributed clinical study data with verification of input data to the distributed system.”

The patent was filed in January 2000 and patent office records show the company began the process of obtaining the patent by filing a Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) in May 1998.