LOS ANGELES — Genentech Inc. said it will appeal a jury verdict ordering it to pay more than $500 million to City of Hope National Medical Center if it can't persuade a Superior Court judge to order a new trial in the intellectual property rights dispute.

        The biotech giant was ordered Monday to pay City of Hope $200 million in punitive damages. Earlier this month the same jury ordered Genentech to pay the research hospital $300.1 million in compensatory damages.

        Jurors found that Genentech failed to pay royalties on some drugs manufactured at City of Hope under the terms of a 1976 agreement.

        Sean Johnston, Genentech's vice president of intellectual property, did not say what the basis for a new trial or an appeal would be. But he said the agreement with City of Hope stood for 20 years without dispute.

        “We continue to be very disappointed in the outcome of this trial,” he said.

        Genentech said an appeal could take between one and four years. In the meantime, the company said it will record a one-time charge of $500 million in the second quarter to cover the two awards.

        Many investors, expecting punitive damages to be higher, sent the company's shares up 5.7 percent Monday. They closed at $34.84.

        City of Hope had asked the jury to award between $300 million and $580 million in punitive damages. In awarding a lower amount, some jurors said they felt City of Hope had kept sloppy records and was therefore partly responsible for not receiving payments it was due.

        Jury foreman Herman Askew said the ruling, reached on a 9-3 vote after three days of deliberations, was difficult because the 25-year-old contract between the two parties was ambiguous.

        “There really is no bad guy. It's just a business deal that wasn't clear,” Askew said.

        During deliberations in the compensatory phase of the trial, the jury spent two weeks arguing over the meaning of three sections of the 12-page contract, Askew said.

        City of Hope said it was satisfied with the award even though it was less than it had requested.

        “We recovered what is due to us and a very clear message was sent to Genentech as far as their wrongdoing,” said City of Hope attorney Glenn Krinsky.

        Any appeal by Genentech would be “completely fruitless” and just delay the inevitable, he added.

        The medical center plans to use most of the money to perform research and provide care to patients with cancer and other life-threatening diseases, Krinsky said.

        A still-undetermined percentage of the punitive award will go to Arthur Riggs and Keiichi Itakura, the two scientists who conducted the groundbreaking research behind the disputed royalties.

        City of Hope sued Genentech in 1999, claiming the South San Francisco-based biotechnology giant concealed licensed sales of protein products, such as hepatitis vaccines, over a 15-year period that were worth about $16.7 billion.

        City of Hope, which made the protein manufacturing discovery, contended it was owed 2 percent royalties on those sales, plus interest, or $457 million, based on the agreement it signed with Genentech.

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