CardioFocus Inc. settled with another defendant in a patent infringement lawsuit it filed in 2008 against nine other firms, accusing them of infringing a trio of patents covering its cardiac laser ablation device.
The Marlborough, Mass.-based company and New Star Lasers Inc. of Roseville, Calif., agreed to dismiss their claims against each other and bear their own legal costs, according to legal documents.
New Star’s is the fifth settlement CardioFocus has inked in the case, following an agreement in August 2008 with Photomedex Inc. (NSDQ:PHMD) and Surgical Laser Technologies Inc., both of Mongomeryville, Pa., and deals with Marlborough-based Candela Corp. — now a part of Syneron Medical Ltd. (NSDQ:ELOS) — and Laserscope of San Jose, Calif, according to court documents.
CardioFocus sued the group in February 2008, accusing each firm of infringing three of the patents used in its endoscopic ablation system and seeking damages and pre-judgment interest. The four other firms accused in the suit are IPG Photonics Corp. (NSDQ:IPGP) of Oxford, Mass., Xintec Corp. of Alameda, Calif. (which does business under the Convergent Laser Technologies banner), Trimedyne Inc. (OTC:TMED) of Lake Forest, Calif., and CardioGenesis Corp. (OTC:CGCP) of Irvine, Calif.
CardioFocus, which raised $6 million in a debt offering a year ago and another $5 million in an April offering of equity, debt, options and warrants, according to regulatory filings, won CE Mark approval in the European Union last July for its atrial ablation catheter, a visually guided balloon catheter that uses a rotating laser to ablate the tissue surrounding the pulmonary artery’s entrance into the heart, to reduce atrial fibrillation. The device is in clinical trials in the U.S. and saw its first use in the trial last September.
