A Medical Device Daily
A U.S. District Court Judge in Wilmington, Delaware, has issued two decisions about post-trial motions related to jury verdicts last year in patent litigation between Cordis , (Miami Lakes, Florida), a business of Johnson & Johnson (J&J; New Brunswick, New Jersey), and Boston Scientific (Natick, Massachusetts).
In the first decision, Judge Sue Robinson upheld a jury verdict from June 2005 that found Boston Scientific's Taxus Stent and its Libert and Express bare metal stents infringe Cordis' Palmaz patent for balloon expandable stents, and that the Libert stent also infringes another Cordis patent – the Gray patent – which relates to flexible balloon expandable stents and expires in 2016. The Palmaz patent has expired.
Judge Robinson did not set dates for trials to determine damages.
“We are pleased with today's decision from Judge Robinson to uphold the jury verdict in favor of the Palmaz and Gray patents,” said Rick Anderson, group chairman, J&J and worldwide chairman, Cordis. “Today's decision – together with previous findings of infringement by Boston Scientific's NIR stent – reinforces the strength of Cordis' deep patent estate in the balloon expandable stent field.”
In a second decision, the judge upheld the portion of a July 2005 jury verdict that found Boston Scientific's Jang patent to be valid and infringed, under the doctrine of equivalents, by Cordis' Cypher Sirolimus-eluting Coronary Stent and Bx Velocity family of stent products. The Jang patent claims specific stent geometry.
The judge, however, did not rule on an additional Cordis motion asking that she overturn the jury's finding that the Cypher Stent also infringes Boston Scientific's Ding patent, which claims a two-layer drug coating on a drug-eluting stent.
Cordis said it will appeal the judge's decision today on the Jang patent to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington.
Boston Scientific also issued a statement reporting the rulings but did not comment on them.
In other legalities:
• Palomar Medical Technologies (Burlington, Massachusetts) reported that the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts moved the start of the trial from May 30 to June 19 due to scheduling conflicts at the court.
Palomar has charged infringement by Cutera (Brisbane, California), relating to two products: CoolGlide Laser Systems, including the CoolGlide CV, Excel, Vantage and Xeo. Palomar has a license to this patent from Massachusetts General Hospital (Boston).
Palomar develops light-based systems for cosmetic treatments. Cutera is a competitor developing medical laser systems.
• A postal worker was arrested on Thursday for allegedly providing secret New Jersey grand jury developments about a probe of accounting fraud at Bristol-Myers Squibb (Princeton, New Jersey) to people that authorities say created a massive insider trading operation.
Jason Smith of Jersey City, New Jersey, was charged with insider trading for his role in what authorities called an effort to make millions of dollars illegally in the securities markets. The scheme allegedly was based on an analyst giving tips about pending business mergers and from illegally obtained early copies of a market-moving column in Business Week.