Case Filed: Sep 20, 2013
Case Closed: Mar 18, 2014
Court: Delaware District Court
Judge: Leonard P. Stark
Case Summary:
Delaware-based Kardiametrics sued
Boston Scientific, a manufacturer and marketer of medical devices alleging
infringement of its patents for blood clot protection. The patents-in-suit were:
US6544276 and US6986778, both entitled ‘Exchange method for emboli containment’,
and issued on Apr 08, 2003 and Jan 17, 2006, respectively. The patents are set
to expire[i]
by May 20, 2016. Percusurge and Kardiametrics are the current assignee[ii]
of the patents (source: MaxVal’s Assignment
Database). According to complaint, Kardiametrics acquired the patents in
question by Apr 2013. The claims of the ‘778 and ‘276 patents relate to a
method for exchanging catheters during emboli containment in blood vessels.
The complaint alleged that the defendant
infringed the ‘276 and ‘778 patents by the sale of medical devices including
FilterWire EZ™ Embolic Protection System; Sterling® SL Balloon Dilatation
Catheter; Sterling™ Monorail® Balloon Dilatation Catheter; NexStent® Carotid
Stent System; NexStent® Carotid Stent; NexStent® Carotid Stent and Delivery
System; NexStent® Carotid Stent and Monorail® Delivery System; and Carotid
WALLSTENT® Monorail® Endoprothesis, which incorporate or use subject matter
claimed in the ‘276 and ‘778 patents.
The complaint further added that
the infringement was willful and deliberate, without license and with full
knowledge of the patents-in-suit, thereby requesting the Court to make this an
exceptional case entitling Kardiametrics to attorneys' fees and enhanced
damages.
In Jan 2014, Boston Scientific
filed a motion to dismiss the case or in the alternative to stay the case
pending an arbitration. To the motion filed, Kardiametrics acknowledged that
this action should be dismissed indicating that it will seek dismissal of the
complaint. Later, Kardiametrics filed a
notice of stipulation following which the Court granted dismissal without
prejudice.
Kardiametrics sued a number of
medical device companies, including Covidien, Abbott and others alleging
infringement of the same patents.
See 6:14-cv-00206
for more details. To get alerts on cases filed/closed, subscribe to our
Litigation Alerts.
Max-Insight enables
you to access all of our patent tools such as Patent Term Estimator, Patent
Family Tree, Has This Patent Been Litigated, etc. in one location. Max-Insight is
available in 4 different subscriptions: Free, Bronze, Silver and Gold with
varying usage levels. To learn more about Max-Insight, click here.
[i]
Expected expiration date. Patent Term Estimator is a free web-based tool that
automatically calculates patent terms and expiration dates for U.S. utility
patents.
[ii]
MaxVal offers Patent Assignment Alert service where subscribers receive email
alerts when assignments relating to target applications, patents or entities of
interest are recorded.
No comments:
Post a Comment