Business news in brief

Synthes Inc., the Zurich medical device maker with U.S. headquarters in West Chester, said a judge had awarded it $21 million in damages and costs in a patent dispute with rival Medtronic Inc. Medtronic, Minneapolis, is appealing, Synthes said it a statement. In the civil case filed in 2007 in U.S. District Court in Memphis, Synthes accused Medtronic of infringing a Synthes patent covering its ProDisc-L artificial disc replacement device. A federal jury ruled against Medtronic in November. The court last month denied Medtronic's motion for a new trial. - Reid Kanaley

Fitch Ratings said it downgraded the rating of Capmark Financial Group Inc., Horsham, to "C" from "B-" and Capmark Bank to "CC" from "B-". A level of "C" indicates that a default of some kind appears imminent or inevitable, the ratings firm said. It cut the rating after Capmark Financial, a real estate lender that once was part of General Motors Corp., last week posted a second-quarter net loss of $1.6 billion compared with an $11.5 million profit in the same quarter last year. Also yesterday, Capmark Bank said it had been notified by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. that it intends to impose certain requirements and restrictions on the bank, Fitch said. - Paul Schweizer

Valero Energy Corp. said it is closing a portion of a Delaware refinery and laying off 150 employees and 100 contract workers until economic conditions improve. The San Antonio, Texas, company blamed the recession for the unprofitable performance of the coker and gasifier complex at the Delaware City refinery. - AP

US Airways finished third with 80.6 percent of its flights in July arriving on time, among 19 carriers that report monthly performance, the U.S. Department of Transportation said. Philadelphia's dominant airline said it would give each employee a $100 bonus for finishing in the top three among the network airlines. Only Southwest Airlines Co. and Alaska Airlines performed better among large airlines. US Airways mishandled 2.75 bags per 1,000 passengers in July. Only AirTran Airways performed better, with 1.78 mishandled bags per 1,000 passengers. - Linda Loyd

National Penn Bancshares Inc. said it would sell about $125 million worth of common stock. The Boyertown banking company said it would use the proceeds for several possible purposes, including making acquisitions, refinancing debt, and the repurchase from the federal government of preferred stock and warrants. The preferred shares and warrants, worth $150 million, were issued in December under the U.S. Treasury's Troubled Asset Relief Program to rescue the nation's financial services industry. Repurchase of the securities would require regulatory approval. The company's new shares are a secondary offering. - Paul Schweizer

Comcast Corp. began offering Internet speeds of 100 megabits per second to business customers in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minn. The price is $370 a month. The speed doubles Comcast's previous offering. The Philadelphia company says it takes about 18 minutes to download an X-ray image over a phone company DSL line and 36 seconds to download the same image over the Internet at 100 megabits per second. Comcast plans to offer the new speeds in Philadelphia and other markets, but would not say when. - Bob Fernandez

Peco Energy Co. will buy and modify about 20 Ford F550 utility trucks to operate as plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) as part of a U.S. Department of Energy pilot program, Peco spokesman Michael Wood said. The Philadelphia company is one of about 50 utilities participating in a consortium to demonstrate PHEV performance in 378 mid-sized trucks. The consortium, organized by the Electric Power Research Institute, was given a $45 million stimulus grant. The utilities will receive matching grants up to $2.5 million to pay for the vehicles. - Andrew Maykuth

The owners of a new frozen yogurt chain in the Philadelphia area are fighting a trademark dispute over the name "Sprinkles." The owners hope to keep the Sprinkles Yogurt name despite objections from the Beverly Hills, Calif., owners of Sprinkles Cupcakes. Furniture store chain owner Dan Mealey and sons Matthew and Ryan opened their first Sprinkles Yogurt store this summer in Cherry Hill. They plan locations in West Chester, Malvern and the University City section of Philadelphia. Sprinkles Cupcakes says the Mealeys are infringing on their 2002 trademark by using the "Sprinkles" name for a dessert store. The Mealeys' lawyer says the word is generic and the trademark should be rescinded. - AP

Fifteen big banks that dominate worldwide trading of derivatives have committed to greater transparency in a $600 trillion market that regulators say needs stricter oversight. The international group of banks - including Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., Deutsche Bank AG, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. - made the commitment for targets in expanded central clearing systems to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in a letter yesterday. - AP

Interest rates on six-month Treasury bills hit a record low for the second consecutive week. The Treasury Department yesterday auctioned $29 billion in six-month bills at a discount rate of 0.225 percent. That was down from last week's record of 0.240 percent. Another $29 billion in three-month bills were auctioned at a discount rate of 0.140 percent, down from 0.150 percent last week. The discount rates reflect that the bills sell for less than face value. For a $10,000 bill, the three-month price was $9,996.46. A six-month bill sold for $9,988.63. - AP

The Federal Reserve said yesterday that the average yield for one-year Treasury bills, a popular index for making changes in adjustable-rate mortgages, fell to 0.42 percent last week from 0.45 percent the previous week. - AP