A Medical Device Daily

Cook (Bloomington, Indiana) said it has filed suit in a D sseldorf district court against Edwards Lifesciences (Irvine, California) claiming that Edwards' Sapien THV heart valve directly infringes on German Patent DE 60128069T2.

Cook is asking the court to issue a cease and desist order to prevent Edwards from manufacturing, importing, exporting, or selling the device, and has asked for an accounting of all commercial activities for the infringing product and a judgment for damages.

"We are confident that the court will uphold our patented technology upon examining the evidence presented in our complaint," said Pete Yonkman, general counsel for Cook. "We have clearly shown that Edwards' Sapien THV device is covered by our patent, which is one of a large portfolio of patent properties related to Cook's development program for percutaneous valves."

Cook develops biopharma, gene and cell therapy and biotech to enhance patient safety in the fields of aortic intervention; interventional cardiology; critical care medicine; gastroenterology; radiology, peripheral vascular, bone access and oncology.

In other legalities: Agilent Technologies (Santa Clara, California) reported it has filed litigation against Advanced Materials Technology (AMT; Santa Clara) in the Delaware Court of Chancery to protect confidential and proprietary information relating to its high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) technology.

The complaint contends that three former Agilent employees, now with AMT, breached the confidentiality of their employment agreements, misappropriated Agilent trade secrets and breached their fiduciary duties with respect to Agilent's HPLC intellectual property. The litigation filing alleges that Agilent trade secrets and confidential information were used by AMT in developing its Halo HPLC columns.

"Agilent is built on a long-standing foundation of integrity and high ethical standards by our employees in both their external and internal interactions," said Mike McMullen, VP and general manager of Agilent's Chemical Analysis Solutions Unit. "This is an unfortunate, but reasonable and necessary action to vigorously protect our intellectual property."

Agilent said it is a leading supplier of HPLC instruments, consumables and support. HPLC is a form of liquid chromatography used frequently in biochemistry and analytical chemistry. Sometimes referred to as high-pressure liquid chromatography, it is used to separate components of a mixture by using a variety of chemical interactions between the substance being analyzed and the chromatography column.