A Medical Device Daily

CoreValve (Irvine, California) reported Thursday that it has prevailed in a patent infringement lawsuit with Edwards Lifesciences (also Irvine) in Germany.

The decision by the German Federal Court found that CoreValve's ReValving system for transcatheter aortic valve replacement does not infringe any of the claims of the Andersen patent held by Edwards. This ruling protects CoreValve's rights to continue its expanded clinical evaluation of its system for percutaneous aortic valve replacement in high-risk patients with advanced aortic valve disease in Germany, the company said.

"We are pleased that the German court, after a comprehensive review of the evidence provided by both companies, found that CoreValve's ReValving system does not infringe the Andersen patent. We will continue to vigorously defend our own intellectual property and our legal right to continue to develop and clinically evaluate our ReValving system for the treatment of patients worldwide," said Daniel Lemaitre, CoreValve's president/CEO.

Edwards says it remains convinced that CoreValve's product infringes its German patent for its transcatheter heart valve technology and the company said it would "promptly appeal" the decision. The ruling has no effect on sales of the Edwards Sapien transcatheter heart valve in Germany or anywhere else, the company said.

"While we are disappointed by this initial court decision, defending our intellectual property is only one element of our broader leadership strategy," said Larry Wood, Edwards' corporate VP of transcatheter valve replacement.

Separately, the Federal Patent Court in Munich, Germany, will rule on the validity of Edwards' Andersen patent early next year, the company said. Edwards also has lawsuits against CoreValve in the UK and U.S. for infringement of the Andersen family of patents.

In other legalities, Carl Zeiss Meditec (Dublin, California) and Optovue (Fremont, California) reported resolving their legal disputes pending in the Northern District of California and in Massachusetts Superior Court. The companies have agreed to licensing and other terms and assurance of protection of disputed intellectual property.

Optovue is a privately-held ophthalmic device company that has developed the RTVue Fourier Domain OCT, the first FDA-cleared spectral domain OCT capable, Optovue says, of imaging both the front (cornea) and back (retina) of the eye in a single system.

Carl Zeiss offers integrated solutions for treating the four main eye diseases: vision defects (refraction), cataracts, glaucoma and retinal disorders. The company's system solutions are employed in all phases of the disease management, from diagnosis to treatment and follow-up, it says.