As reported in Businessweek, CNBC, Fox
Business, Law360 and Reuters, Paul, Weiss
client Edwards Lifesciences obtained a victory in the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the Federal Circuit, affirming a 2010 federal jury
decision that Medtronic, Inc.'s Medtronic CoreValve subsidiary
infringed Edwards' U.S. Andersen transcatheter heart valve patent.
The appeals court also affirmed the validity of Edwards' patent and
the jury's verdict awarding an initial payment of $74 million in
damages to Edwards, which covers infringement through early 2010.
When the case returns to the trial court, Edwards will request that
Medtronic pay additional damages accumulated after the jury verdict
was handed down.
Additionally, the appeals court ordered the trial court to
reconsider Edwards' request for a permanent injunction that would
prohibit the manufacture and sale of Medtronic's CoreValve system
in the U.S.
The patent-in-suit is part of the Andersen family of patents,
which relates to a valve prosthesis for implantation by means of a
catheter. Edwards has filed a petition to extend the patent to
2017.
Edwards and Medtronic are the two largest makers of alternative
heart valve devices designed to treat patients who are either
ineligible or at high risk for traditional open-heart surgery.
The Paul, Weiss team included patent litigation partners John Nathan
and Catherine Nyarady and counsel Kripa Raman.
On the same day, Judge James Selna of the Central District
of California granted summary judgment in favor of Edwards in
another litigation involving transcatheter heart valve technology.
There, Medtronic had sued Edwards alleging infringement of a patent
in its Seguin family of patents. The district court held that the
Seguin patent-in-suit had a defective priority claim, which
rendered the patent invalid over Medtronic's own earlier
publications.
The Paul, Weiss team included patent litigation partners John Nathan
and Catherine Nyarady.