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Edwards Lifesciences Obtains Two Significant Patent Victories in Its Transcatheter Heart Valve Litigations
- Client News
- November 13, 2012
Practices
As reported in Businessweek, CNBC, Fox Business, Law360 and Reuters, Paul, Weiss client Edwards Lifesciences obtained a victory in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, affirming a 2010 federal jury decision that Medtronic, Inc.'s Medtronic CoreValve subsidiary infringed Edwards' U.S. Andersen transcatheter heart valve patent. The appeals court also affirmed the validity of Edwards' patent and the jury's verdict awarding an initial payment of $74 million in damages to Edwards, which covers infringement through early 2010. When the case returns to the trial court, Edwards will request that Medtronic pay additional damages accumulated after the jury verdict was handed down.
Additionally, the appeals court ordered the trial court to reconsider Edwards' request for a permanent injunction that would prohibit the manufacture and sale of Medtronic's CoreValve system in the U.S.
The patent-in-suit is part of the Andersen family of patents, which relates to a valve prosthesis for implantation by means of a catheter. Edwards has filed a petition to extend the patent to 2017.
Edwards and Medtronic are the two largest makers of alternative heart valve devices designed to treat patients who are either ineligible or at high risk for traditional open-heart surgery.
The Paul, Weiss team included patent litigation partners John Nathan and Catherine Nyarady and counsel Kripa Raman.
On the same day, Judge James Selna of the Central District of California granted summary judgment in favor of Edwards in another litigation involving transcatheter heart valve technology. There, Medtronic had sued Edwards alleging infringement of a patent in its Seguin family of patents. The district court held that the Seguin patent-in-suit had a defective priority claim, which rendered the patent invalid over Medtronic's own earlier publications.
The Paul, Weiss team included patent litigation partners John Nathan and Catherine Nyarady.