Medtronic (NYSE:MDT) yesterday lost its bid for an appeals court review of its nearly $24 million loss in a patent infringement lawsuit brought by a physician inventor.
In February 2014, Dr. Mark Barry alleged that Fridley, Minn.-based Medtronic infringed on three patents covering a “system and method for aligning vertebrae in the amelioration of aberrant spinal column deviation conditions.”
A jury in the U.S. District Court for Eastern Texas sided with Barry in November 2016, awarding $15.1 million for infringement of one patent, more than $2.6 million for infringement on the second; a $2.6 million award for overseas infringement was later overturned. In May 2017 the court awarded total damages of nearly $24 million.
Medtronic appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which in January issued a split 2-1 opinion affirming the lower court’s decision. Medtronic then sought both a three-judge en banc review and a review by the Federal Circuit’s full bench, arguing that the dissenting judge’s argument on one of the patents should carry the day.
Yesterday the appeals court said it referred Medtronic’s motion to the original panel and to all active Federal Circuit judges.
“Upon consideration thereof, it is ordered that: The petition for panel rehearing is denied. The petition for rehearing en banc is denied. The mandate of the court will issue on May 6, 2019,” the court ruled in a per curiam decision.