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.