Medtronic wins $57M amid a sea of payouts

In the first phase of a patent infringement lawsuit Minneapolis medical device giant Medtronic filed against its fellow Twin Cities firm AGA Medical Corp, a San Francisco jury sided with Medtronic in federal district court — although the $57 million is only half the amount Medtronic asked for in the suit.

Medtronic accused AGA of infringing a pair of patents with AGA’s Amplatzer Occluder and vascular plug product lines. The decision also calls for AGA to pay 11% royalties to Medtronic on future U.S. sales of the devices through 2018.

AGA had a different outlook on the ruling. In a press release, AGA stated it looks forward to the second, non-jury phase “dealing with other issues of invalidity and unenforceability of the Medtronic patents”. Further litigation is slated to resume later this year and could affect the final outcome. The Medtronic patents in question cover self‐expanding medical devices using a metal alloy such as Nitinol, a shape memory alloy containing nickel and titanium that expands to its original shape after deployment.

The decision is a rare win for device giant Medtronic as recent weeks have brought a string of tough decisions to the company dockets. These include a nearly $180 million judgment against it in a pedicle screw patent dispute with DePuy Spine Inc., the recall of nearly 60,000 insulin infusion sets, its inclusion in a “qui tam” whistleblower lawsuit along with six other firms that stand accused of promoting the off-label use of microwave cardiac ablation products and bilking the Medicare system.

Also in the news, Medtronic made a $400 million settlement payment to Abbott Laboratories, preventing the companies from suing each other over heart stents or delivery systems for at least 10 years. The new agreement follows earlier deals this year resolving heart stent patent disputes with Boston Scientific and Johnson & Johnson, two other stent rivals. Medtronic now believes it has resolved or settled “substantially all” intellectual property litigation surrounding stent design and delivery.