Medtronic (NYSE:MDT) wants a California judge to forever bar rival NuVasive (NSDQ:NUVA) from making or selling one of its spinal implants that a jury found to infringe Medtronic patents.
In September, the federal jury in San Diego issued a split verdict in a patent infringement lawsuit, awarding $101.2 million to Medtronic and $660,000 to its smaller rival.
Now the Twin Cities colossus wants Judge Michael Anello of the U.S. District Court for Southern California to "permanently enjoin Defendant NuVasive Inc. from making, using, offering to sell, selling, or importing the CoRoent XL1 implants," according to court documents.
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The case dates back to 2008, when a group of Medtronic subsidiaries sued NuVasive, accusing the San Diego-based company of infringing 9 patents relating to spinal implants. NuVasive in turn accused Medtronic of trespassing on three of its patents.
Medtronic also wants Anello to award supplemental damages "for infringement by NuVasive that occurred after the damages period considered by the jury," according to the documents.
And it wants Anello to overturn the jury’s finding that it infringed portions of a NuVasive patent, "on two fundamental grounds – both of which arise from the testimony of NuVasive’s expert (Dr. Stephen Raymond) and NuVasive’s failure to present legally-sufficient evidence on elements necessary for infringement," according to the documents.
For its part, NuVasive asked Anello to overturn the verdict or grant a new trial.
"The court should put things right in this case, because significant aspects of Warsaw’s trial
presentation relied on theories and tactics that are impermissible as a matter of law," according to the documents. "None of these issues involves factual disputes. Instead, each issue involves applying settled Federal Circuit law to facts that were uncontested at trial. Warsaw has been able to prevail, for now, by ignoring the court’s orders and Federal Circuit law. The time has come for this court to intervene, do what is right, and grant judgment as a matter of law, or at a minimum a new trial, in NuVasive’s favor on all issues that the jury decided adversely to NuVasive."