Argentum sues IP firm, lawyer over lapsed patent

Argentum Medical is suing its former intellectual property law firm after it lost a patent infringement suit it filed against Noble Biomaterials.

Geneva, Ill.-based Argentum filed the suit against Noble in late 2007, alleging that Noble’s SilverSeal anti-microbial bandages infringed one of its patents, but the U.S. District Court for Middle Pennsylvania dismissed the case on the grounds that Argentum did not have exclusive rights to the patent. That prompted a counter-claim by Noble that Argentum and its management, namely chairman and CEO Gregg Silver and president Tom Miller, “pursued baseless litigation and falsely advised the market” that Noble infringed the patent.

The jury decided in Scranton, Pa.-based Noble’s favor, awarding $1 million in compensatory damages, $1 million from Miller and $1.25 million from Silver, respectively, in punitive damages. The court later added a $1 million judgment against Argentum for filing the patent suit in bad faith. Argentum later lost a bid for a new trial.

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Now Argentum wants a jury to decide whether its former patent attorney, Joseph Fuchs, and his Chicago law firm, Rockey Depke & Lyons, were negligent in their prosecution of the case against Noble. Saying it paid $675,000 to Rockey (and another $900,000 to the firm it hired after it fired Rockey in July 2010), Argentum is seeking judgments of $5 million in compensatory damages against Fuchs and the law firm, as well as legal costs and pre- and post-judgment interest.

Argentum has appealed the case against Noble to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, according to court documents.

CardioNet nears settlement of shareholder suit

CardioNet (NSDQ:BEAT) said it’s nearing a settlement in a shareholders’ lawsuit accusing the mobile cardiac monitoring firm of misleading investors about Medicare reimbursement.

The deal with the West Palm Beach Police Pension Fund would see Conshohocken, Pa.-based CardioNet pay nearly $7.3 million to settle the case, according to a press release.

The pension fund sued CardioNet in March 2010, alleging that CardioNet, then-president and CEO Randy Thurman and CFO Martin Galvan issued too-aggressive earnings forecasts that sent the company’s stock soaring to artificially high levels. Shares reached $19.60 May 19, according to court documents, after the company released its guidance for 2009 through 2011. But on June 30, CardioNet lowered its 2009 guidance and rescinded its forecast for 2010 and 2011 “based on lower-than-anticipated commercial reimbursement rates,” according to the documents.

That sent shares plunging more than 41 percent to $9.57 July 1, down from $16.32 on June 30.

Then came news that Pennsylvania’s Medicare carrier, Highmark Medicare Services, was slashing its reimbursement rate for Mobile Cardiac Outpatient Telemetry by 33 percent.

That prompted CardioNet to rescind its 2009 guidance and sent share prices down another 34 percent, from $8.83 to a $5.87 close July 13.

CardioNet beat another, similar lawsuit in August 2010. Read more

Courts uphold preemption doctrine in suits against Medtronic, Thoratec
Federal courts in Pennsylvania and Louisiana ruled for Medtronic (NYSE:MDT) and Thoratec (NSDQ:THOR) on preemption grounds in a pair of unrelated product liability lawsuits.

The preemption doctrine, enshrined into law in the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2008 decision in Riegel v. Medtronic, holds that patients can’t sue medical device makers in state courts over products that went through the FDA’s most stringent review process, called pre-market approval.

The U.S. District Court for Eastern Pennsylvania shot down a lawsuit filed over a recalled Medtronic insulin pump, ruling that the plaintiff failed to prove that Pennsylvania law trumps preemption.

And the U.S. District Court for Eastern Louisiana ruled for Thoratec along similar grounds in a case involving the failure of one of its implantable heart pumps, whose failure allegedly led to the cardiac arrest and death of a patient. Read more

Spinal Kinetics claims win in patent case filed by Synthes
A jury in the U.S. District Court for Northern California ruled that Spinal Kinetics’ M6 artificial disk replacement does not infringe a patent owned by Johnson & Johnson’s (NYSE:JNJ) soon-to-be subsidiary, Synthes Inc.

The jury found the patent to be invalid, according to a press release. Read more

EndoChoice sues trio over Cinchpad patent
EndoChoice Inc. sued a trio of firms, Austin Medical, AVID Medical and Cygnus Medical, in the U.S. District Court for Northern Georgia, alleging that each infringes the patent covering its Cinchpad scope transport pad.

Alpharetta, Ga.-based EndoChoice, which inked a GPO supply deal with Premier this week, is no stranger to the courtroom. The company is a defendant in lawsuit filed by Boston Scientific (NYSE:BSX) in the U.S. District Court for Massachusetts, accusing Cook Group of violating the quartet of patents with its Evolution stenting system. Read more