A Medical Device Daily

Covidien's (Dublin, Ireland) VNUS Medical Technologies (San Jose, California) reported it was awarded $46 million by a jury that found Total Vein Solutions (Houston) and Biolitec (Jena, Germany) infringed the company's patents for eliminating varicose veins with lasers.

Total Vein must pay $36.5 million and Biolitec $9.34 million, a federal jury in San Francisco said last week.

The dispute was over endovenous laser ablation, a nonsurgical procedure used to eliminate varicose veins.

Total Vein said in a statement it will challenge the verdict and called the award “grossly inflated.“ The jury invalidated some of VNUS Medical's patent claims, Total Vein said.

Biolitec sells surgical and cosmetic lasers and disposable medical supplies for urology and skin care.