Medtronic wins lawsuit against Biomet subsidiary

Medtronic has announced that an appeal court has ruled in its favour in its continuing patent litigation case against Biomet subsidiary Cross Medical Products.

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled in favour of the firm, deciding the company’s current existing multi-axial pedicle screw products do not infringe on the US patent of Cross Medical relating to its CD Horizon Legacy, Vertex and CD Horizon Sextant milt-axial screw products.

As a result of this ruling, Medtronic is legally permitted to continue the sale of its own multi-axial pedicle screws.

Pete Wehrly, senior vice-president and spine and navigation president at Medtronic, said: “We are pleased that the Federal Circuit appellate court agreed with our position that we did not infringe Biomet’s designs.”

Medtronic alleges that Biomet has infringed its own copyright on a number of products, with the firm stating it will continue its lawsuits regarding these claims.

The company notes that this appeal follows an original trial regarding a number of patents, with the court then finding in Medtronic’s favour in all but one claim, with this appeal relating to that claim.

In April 2005, Medtronic reported that the judge in that trial had found in its favour by ruling that the ‘442 crosslink and ‘602 cervical plate patents from Cross Medical were invalid.