Watson Pharmaceuticals Inc. on Wednesday announced it settled a legal tussle with Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Limited and Takeda Pharmaceuticals North America.

Based in Morristown, Watson’s application to sell a generic equivalent version of Takeda’s Actos diabetes treatment was stalled after Japan- and Deerfield, Ill.-based Takeda filed a patent challenge against Watson in court.

But Watson can launch its generic equivalent Aug. 17, 2012, “or earlier under certain circumstances,” according to the Watson announcement.

The company decided to settle instead of going to trial because the 2012 release “still lets us enter the market four years before Takeda’s patent expires,” said spokesman Charles Mayr.

Watson also is locked in a patent battle with Endo Pharmaceuticals, of Chadds Ford, Pa., over the latter’s painkiller drug, Opana ER, which rang up sales of $245 million in 2009.

E-mail Martin C. Daks at mdaks@njbiz.com

Follow me on Twitter @MartyNJBIZ