Medtronic wins stent patent arbitration with Cordis

By Angela McDaniels

Seattle, March 23 - Medtronic Inc. said an independent arbitration panel has found in favor of the company in a case in which Cordis Corp. of Johnson & Johnson alleged that the Medtronic Driver stent and several other Medtronic stents infringed some of Cordis's patents.

The arbitration panel issued its non-appealable decision on Feb. 20, and it became final on Wednesday.

Finding in favor of Medtronic on all issues before it, the arbitration panel ruled that the Medtronic stents in question were licensed under a 1997 settlement and cross license agreement between the companies and that a 1998 Cordis "covenant not to sue" barred Cordis from filing a lawsuit that the Medtronic Vascular products infringed Cordis' patents, according to a company news release.

As a result of this decision, the Driver stent and the other Medtronic stents in question have been found to be licensed to the Palmaz-Schatz patents owned by Cordis and Johnson & Johnson. Medtronic said it has moved to dismiss the related litigation involving the same subject matter that had been stayed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware pending the outcome of the arbitration.

In addition, future disputes between the two companies on these stents and patents will also be governed by the 1997 settlement and cross license agreement.

In a related matter, Medtronic and Cordis filed an unopposed motion in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas on Feb. 23 to lift a stay in a patent infringement lawsuit Medtronic had filed against Cordis, alleging that the Cypher drug-eluting coronary stent infringes Medtronic's Fitzmaurice catheter design patents.

This case had been on stay pending the outcome of the arbitration panel award, according to the release. The stay was lifted on March 2, and a trial will be scheduled.

The Driver stent is a bare metal coronary stent and is the platform for Medtronic's Endeavor drug-eluting stent system.

Medtronic is a medical device company based in Minneapolis.

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