Federal Judiciary

Medtronic v. Boston Scientific damages cut by $63.91 million

By Michael Smith

Medtronic v. Boston Scientific Corp., 2:06cv078-TJW (E.D. Tex. August 1, 2008)
Judge: T. John Ward
Holding: Damages Award Reduction
Three weeks ago I reported that Judge Ward has granted part of Boston Scientific's motion for JMOL on the damages in this patent case.  As readers may recall, Medtronic obtained a damages  verdict of $250 million this spring against BSC, but with respect to the $83 million attributable to what was referred to as the Anderson patent, there was a problem.
BSC claimed that JMOL was appropriate as to the accused products not tested by the plaintiff's expert.  Judge Ward observed that not all sizes needed to be tested, but eventually concluded that "[f]or the accused products not tested by [plaintiff's expert] or otherwise shown to meet the relevant claim limitation, the jury was not presented with any evidence upon which to base a finding of infringement. As a result, a reasonable jury would not have a legally sufficient evidentiary basis to find that the untested products infringe the Anderson patent. For these reasons, the court GRANTS BSC?s JMOL No. 5 with respect to the untested catheters."
Next, BSC argued that the infringement finding should be set aside where the expert's measurements put the product outside the range of what he claimed constituted infringement.  Concluding that the plaintiff had not adduced expert testimony to support its infringement claims as to these products, Judge Ward granted the JMOL on these two catheters as well.
Judge Ward directed the parties to submit a proposed reduction to the damages award within 10 days.  The parties did so, agreeing that the overall reduction in the value of the royalty base for the Anderson patent was 77%, resulting in a reduction of the overall damages by $63.91 million.  So damages in the case currently sit at $186 million, and the remainder of BSC's JMOL remains pending.

Full post as published by Eastern District of Texas Federal Court Practice on August 08, 2008 (boomark / email).