Boston Scientific (NYSE:BSX) today claimed a win in an ongoing patent spat with Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW) over transcatheter aortic valve replacement system patents.
Marlborough, Mass.-based Boston Scientific said that a jury in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware ruled in its favor, finding that their ‘608 patent, related to a transcatheter heart valve sealing skirt, is valid and that Irvine, Calif.-based Edwards Sapien 3 aortic valve infringes on that patent.
The jury determined that Edwards owes Boston Scientific $35 million in infringement damages through to the end of 2016. Damages and interest incurred from 2017 to 2018 will be “determined by the court in post-trial motions,” Boston Scientific said.
In response to the ruling, Edwards said in a press release that it “does not expect to pay the jury award since, earlier this year, the U.S. Patent and Trademark office determined that all asserted claims of the ‘608 patent were invalid.”
Boston Scientific’s Lotus aortic valve system was also found to not infringe upon a number of Edwards’ Spenser patents, the company said. Edwards said that it plans to appeal this decision.
“We continue to be encouraged by the sustained record of positive legal rulings, first in European courts and now in the U.S., which upholds our company’s intellectual property,” Boston Scientific GC, SVP & corporate secretary Desiree Ralls-Morrison said in a press release.
Edwards commented that “Boston Scientific initiated litigation that now involves multiple patents in multiple venues, and will likely yield court actions over an extended period of time. ”
In October, Boston Scientific touted a win in a German court that granted the company’s bid for an injunction barring Edwards’ Sapien 3 Ultra valve from the German market. The decision had no impact on sales of the Sapien 3 or Centera valves in Germany, Edwards said, adding that it planned to appeal and that it “believes it will ultimately prevail.”
