Medtronic Wipes Out $107 Million Patent Verdict in Appeal (1)

The Federal Circuit erased a $106.5 million patent infringement verdict against Medtronic CoreValve LLC over replacement heart valves.

A district court didn’t properly consider that Colibri Heart Valve LLC specifically canceled a claim from its original patent application that would’ve covered two methods for implanting an artificial heart valve to replace a defective one—a push method and a retraction method, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said. Medtronic successfully argued on appeal that the products targeted in Colibri’s verdict employed the retraction method that Colibri dropped from its application to overcome a patent examiner’s initial rejection.

Because ...