Volcano (NSDQ:VOLC) appealed the loss of a patent infringement lawsuit it brought against St. Jude Medical (NYSE:STJ) over a pair of fractional flow reserve patents, after a federal judge in Delaware tossed the case this week.
Earlier this month Volcano agreed to stipulate that St. Jude is not infringing the patent, based on a claim construction by Judge Richard Andrews of the U.S. District Court for Delaware, but vowed to appeal the claim construction.
Volcano sued St. Jude in a Delaware federal court in April 2013, alleging infringement of a pair of patents covering its PrimeWire FFR device by St. Jude’s competing PressureWire Certus and Aeris devices. The FFR devices are designed to measure arterial blood pressure.
Last January Andrews construed the term "flexible element" in both of the Volcano patents in favor of St. Jude, according to court documents. Volcano had argued that the term should encompass coils, hypotubes and balloons, but Andrews agreed with St. Jude’s assertion that the "flexible element" term means a coil, according to the documents. That ruling prompted Volcano and St. Jude Medical to stipulate that St. Jude doesn’t infringe the patents, according to the documents and regulatory filings with the SEC.
Andrews dismissed the case March 17 based on Volcano’s stipulation, prompting Volcano to appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, court records show.
The technology covered by the patents was invented by researchers at Volcano’s corporate predecessor, Cardiometrics, according to the documents. Volcano alleged that Douglas Corl, Robert Obara and John Ortiz "were the first to invent a pressure sensing guide wire that uses a solid state pressure sensor." The 2 patents, both covering technology for an "Ultra Miniature Pressure Sensor," issued March 5, 2013, to Volcano, court records show.
