NuVasive Gets Mixed Ruling as Surgeon’s Patent Case Nears Trial

NuVasive Inc. won a partial victory in an inventor’s lawsuit over spinal-implant technologies, even as a federal judge in Delaware left a central question for a jury to decide.

The company’s 2014 licensing agreement with spinal surgeon Roger P. Jackson includes certain technologies, but jurors will determine whether newer products incorporating break-off tabs and helical-flange designs are covered, Judge Richard G. Andrews wrote in an opinion issued Thursday.

Andrews granted Jackson’s request for clarification of a May 31 ruling on the deal’s covenant-not-to-sue but denied the inventor’s bid to reconsider the decision. He also denied San Diego-based NuVasive’s motion for ...