A cardiac physician is taking St. Jude Medical (NYSE:STJ) and Medtronic (NYSE:MDT) to court claiming they copied work from 2 of his patents with their own devices.
Dr. Robert Snyder, founder of Snyder Heart Valve, filed suits in the United States Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Sherman Division, claiming that both companies used technology covered by his patents for artificial heart valves and their catheter delivery system in their own product offerings.
Medtronic’s suite of CoreValve products and St. Jude’s Portico devices were named in the suit.
The suits mention that Snyders tested the valve in mid-2001 with several physicians, which included Dr. Mehmet Oz. The filing claims that “the physicians at Columbia Presbyterian determined that the funnel valve was “a promising design for potential transluminal valve replacement.””
Both companies are accused of infringing on the patents, and that the “infringement in this regard is ongoing.”
Snyders is listed as the sole inventor on both patents related to the “Funnel Valve,” and claims to have been in contact with both companies in the early 2000s.
The patents were issued in 2003 and 2004, according to the court filings. St. Jude and Medtronic have not yet responded to the suit.