

Occlutech GmbH is claiming victory in a legal battle with St. Jude Medical (NYSE:STJ) over structural heart implants, saying Holland’s Supreme Court upheld an earlier ruling in Occlutech’s favor.
The companies have been duking it out in European courts for years, ever since the case first hit German courts in 2006.
Each side has logged victories since then, with Jena, Germany-based Occlutech eventually coming out on top in a ruling by the German Supreme Court in May 2011. St. Jude slapped Occlutech and Peters with another set of lawsuits the next month.
St. Jude inherited the case, involving intravascular occlusion devices, after it acquired AGA Medical for more than $1 billion in 2010.
Occlutech said related lawsuits are still under way in Italy, Sweden and Spain.
Palomar Medical slaps Tria with another patent suit
Palomar Medical (NSDQ:PMTI) filed a second patent infringement lawsuit accusing Tria Beauty Inc. of violating a newly-issued patent for hand-held, cordless diode laser hair removal devices.
The Burlington, Mass.-based company first sued Tria in 2009, over a pair of patents covering hair removal technology. Tria maintains that its IP is covered by another patent, the so-called 563 patent.
"We were astonished in 2006 by the issuance of Tria’s ‘563 patent including both the content of the claims and the listing of inventors who were prior employees of a subsidiary of Palomar. We knew that the inventions covered by the claims of the ‘563 patent were invented by Palomar employees, not the Tria employees," Palomar CEO Joseph Caruso said in prepared remarks.
Read more
Heart clinic ponies up $1.5M in Medicare fraud case
A Wichita, Kan.-based chain of heart clinics will pony up more than $1.5 million to settle a Medicare fraud case alleging that the chain and its founder bilked the government insurance program by falsely billing for coronary artery disease treatment.
Read more
Stryker holds on to pain pump win
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit upheld a lower court’s ruling that Stryker (NYSE:SYK) is not liable for the chondrolysis he suffered in his shoulder, allegedly as a result of a Stryker pain pump. Stryker must still weather a product liability lawsuit brought by 6 patients over one of its pain pumps in Utah.
Read more
Intuitive Surgical beats shareholders lawsuit
The U.S. District Court for Northern California dismissed a shareholders lawsuit filed against Intuitive Surgical (NSDQ:ISRG) after its financial results failed to meet expectations during the economic crisis of 2008. Judge Lucy Koh originally spiked the suit in August 2011, but left the door open for the plaintiffs to file an amended appeal.
Koh dismissed the class action for a 2nd time last week, this time with prejudice.
Read more
BodyMedia files IP suit against Basis Science
Wearable health tracking device company BodyMedia is suing a rival startup, Basis Science, alleging that a soon-to-launch Basis offering infringes 6 patents.
Read more