W.L. Gore & Assoc. is on the hook for nearly $1.1 billion in damages owed to C.R. Bard (NYSE:BCR) after a federal appeals court last week nixed its bid to reconsider part of the case.
Last January the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld a judgment of willful infringement against Gore, tacking on an extra $205 million to the $854 million Gore already owed Bard for trespassing its stent graft patents.
Gore asked the federal appeals bench for a rehearing and an en banc rehearing, but was rebuffed without comment on both.
It’s the latest development in a decades-long war between Gore and Bard over stent graft technology. Gore alleged that 1 of its engineers, Peter Cooper, invented a key claim in the patent in the early 1970s.
Judge Mary Murguia of the U.S. District Court for Arizona initially ruled that the patent was invented by Dr. David Goldfarb, who later assigned it to Bard. Her 1st decision boosted Bard’s $185.6 million jury award to $371.2 million, prompting Gore to appeal. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld Murguia in February 2012 (sending BCR shares up 2%) and affirmed that judgment in June 2012. Gore’s subsequent appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court in October 2012 was denied early in 2013. That July, the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office upheld the validity of the Bard patent.
But in 2012 the Federal Circuit bench tasked Murguia with reviewing her willfulness finding. In October 2013 Murguia upheld that ruling, finding Gore’s infringement willful and declining to revisit her decision on enhanced damages and legal fees and denying Gore’s bid for a new trial. Gore appealed again to the Federal Circuit, which once again affirmed Murguia.