A Medical Device Daily

Endologix (Irvine, California), developer of minimally invasive treatments for aortic disorders, said it has filed a motion to stay, or discontinue all proceedings in, the patent infringement lawsuit brought against it in October by Cook Medical (Bloomington, Indiana). The motion was filed in the U.S. District Court in Indianapolis.

Cook's lawsuit claims patent infringement on two of its endovascular stent grafts used to repair arterial aneurysms ("Medical Device Daily, Oct. 12, 2009).

Soon after the lawsuit was filed, Endologix said it would "vigourously defend" its position in the suit ("MDD, Oct. 15, 2009).

Endologix said it has requested that the stay remain in effect while the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) conducts proceedings to re-examine the two patents asserted by Cook in the lawsuit and determine whether it should have granted Cook the patents. Endologix has already filed papers requesting that the USPTO re-examine the two Cook patents, based on patents that pre-date Cook's patents and were not previously considered by the USPTO in its decision to grant the patents to Cook.

"In addition to contesting the validity of Cook's patents, we also intend to challenge the lawsuit on other grounds, including non-infringement of the Cook patents by our products," said John McDermott, Endologix president/CEO. "We continue to believe we have support for numerous promising defenses against this infringement case."

In other legalities, QLT (Vancouver, British Columbia) reported the settlement of its litigation with General Hospital (Boston), doing business as Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). QLT said it would pay $20 million to MGH as payment in full for all past and future royalty obligations under the license agreement, in exchange for the dismissal with prejudice of MGH's lawsuit against QLT pending in the Massachusetts District Court.

As part of the settlement, QLT and MGH have also released each other from any claims in connection with the lawsuit and certain related matters. Under the agreement, QLT was obligated to pay MGH a 0.5% royalty on Visudyne sales in the U.S. and Canada.

"We are pleased to put this matter behind us and continue to concentrate on our clinical programs and strategic growth initiatives," said Bob Butchofsky, president/CEO of QLT. "We believe that this agreement fairly resolves our dispute and serves to recognize the critically important contributions made by MGH in the development of Visudyne."