CHICAGO and NORCROSS, Ga., Feb. 8 -- Medical technology company SpectRx Inc. and Molecular Diagnostics Inc., developer of cancer screening systems, announced they have reached an out-of-court settlement of their litigation. Under the settlement, Norcross, Ga.-based SpectRx has agreed to make a lump-sum cash payment to Molecular Diagnostics, and Molecular Diagnostics has granted SpectRx an option to license certain technology. Additional terms of the settlement were kept confidential. Under the settlement, neither party admitted any liability or wrongdoing. The litigation began in fall 2000 when SpectRx sued Molecular Diagnostics, formerly known as Ampersand Medical Corp., and Ampersand's predecessor, AccuMed International Inc., seeking a ruling that it had not violated confidentiality agreements it had signed in 1997 and 1998. Molecular Diagnostics then brought a countersuit alleging that SpectRx improperly used confidential information given to it by Ampersand and AccuMed in the joint development project.