Medtronic awarded $250m in patent lawsuit against Boston Scientific
3 June 2008
Medtronic, Inc. has been awarded $250 million in damages by a US
District Court jury in Marshall, Texas that found that Boston Scientific
Corporation has infringed three patents owned by Medtronic.
Medtronic sued Boston Scientific in 2006, asserting that Boston’s
Taxus Express2, Express2, Liberte, Maverick, Maverick2, and Quantum
Maverick products infringed the Fitzmaurice and Anderson catheter
patents owned by Medtronic. The trial began on May 16, 2008.
The Fitzmaurice patents cover angioplasty catheters with narrowed
distal ends, which improve the deliverability of angioplasty catheters.
The Anderson patent covers semicompliant angioplasty balloons. The
Anderson balloons provide sufficient strength to withstand repeated
inflations allowing custom vessel sizing.
Boston Scientific claimed non-infringement, invalidity,
unenforceability and other equitable relief. The District Court
previously granted the Company's summary judgment motion on one of the
patents and dismissed Medtronic's claim of willful infringement.
Boston Scientific says that it raised a number of defences that were
not considered by this jury but will be heard by the District Court on
July 31. If those defences are successful, the jury's verdict will be
set aside.
Boston Scientific says that if those defences are not successful, it
plans to seek to overturn the verdict in post-trial motions before the
District Court and, if necessary, to appeal to the US Court of Appeals
for the Federal Circuit in Washington, DC.