A Medical Device Daily

Medtronic (Minneapolis) reported that a federal U.S. district court jury in San Francisco awarded it $57 million in past damages, finding that AGA Medical (Golden Valley, Minnesota) manufacture, sale and use of its Amplatzer Occluder and vascular plug product lines infringed claims of two U.S. patents owned by Medtronic.

The jury also ordered that AGA pay Medtronic a royalty of 11% on future U.S. sales of the infringing products through 2018.

The patents involved in this case are U.S. Patent Nos. 6,306,141 and 5,067,957, known as the Jervis patents. The '141 patent covers self-expanding medical devices using stress to restrain a metal alloy that will expand to its original shape upon being released from a restraint, such as a sheath.

For example, this invention allows doctors to locate and expand a medical device to repair holes in the heart, treat aortic aneurysms, place stents within the peripheral vasculature or treat damaged or diseased heart valves via a less invasive, transcatheter heart valve procedure. The '957 patent, which expired in 2004, covers a method of treatment using shape memory alloys, such as nitinol, in accordance with the Jervis inventions.

Medtronic is also asserting these same patents against W.L. Gore & Associates (Newark, Delaware) in another case scheduled to begin Aug. 31 in the same U.S. district court.

Medtronic has widely licensed the Jervis patents to other medical device manufacturers in the U.S. and will continue to offer licenses to this important technology.

AGA reported that a second, non-jury phase of the trial dealing with other issues of invalidity and unenforceability of the Medtronic patents, which could affect the final outcome, has been scheduled for later this year.

The damages awarded in the jury's verdict were about half of what Medtronic had originally sought.

In addition, an unrelated case that is currently pending at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit involves issues that may significantly reduce AGA Medical's liability and any potential damages awarded in this case, AGA reported in a prepared statement.

"While we are disappointed with this interim result, AGA Medical will continue to vigorously defend the case," said John Barr, president/CEO of AGA Medical.