By ALLISSA KLINE
Business First of Buffalo

A prominent medical-battery manufacturer has been found guilty of committing fraud against a Houston-based technology company.

Greatbatch Inc. in Clarence has been ordered to pay $21.7 million in damages and plaintiff's legal fees to ION Geophysical Corp., whose seismic products are used by oil and gas exploration and production companies. A jury on Oct. 1 also found Greatbatch guilty of violating the Louisiana Unfair Trade Practices Act and breaching a trust-and-nondislosure agreement between itself and ION, according to a release from ION.

ION filed suit in 2002 against some of Greatbatch's operating subsidiaries, including Electrochem, for stealing ION's battery designs and then using those designs to manufacture Greatbatch batteries and battery pacts, the release said.

In response to the verdict, Greatbatch said it plans to appeal.

"We are shocked by the verdict, which does not accurately reflect how we conduct our business and is wholly disproportionate to the profit realized by Electrochem from sales of the battery that was the subject of the lawsuit," Susan Bratton, senior vice president at Electrochem, said in a statement. "To put it in perspective, Electrochem's profit for that battery for the past eight years totals less than $1 million and, given the conditions in the energy markets, is not expected to increase appreciably in the foreseeable future."

Electrochem designs and makes batteries and wireless sensing technology for energy, military and medical industries.

Greatbatch is the seventh-largest public company headquartered in the Buffalo-Niagara region. Annual revenues are about $547 million.