Boston Scientific infringed rival stent patents - courts

The US courts have found that Boston Scientific, maker of the top-selling Taxus drug-coated stent, infringed patents held by rival stent maker Johnson & Johnson (J&J).

A separate trial to assess monetary damages is set for August and will follow a third related jury trial, expected to get under way last night, in which Boston Scientific is claiming the reverse - that J&J infringed on a patent for its stent technology.

Boston Scientific and J&J are the only two device makers on the market with drug-coated stents - tiny wire tubes inserted into the blood vessels of patients with coronary artery disease to help keep the vessels clear of blockages.

Boston Scientific employs 3,000 in a number of plants in Ireland and is facing a separate legal action from Israeli supplier Medinol over a secret Irish plant that replicated stents produced for the US company by Medinol.

Yesterday, the Delaware jury found that Boston Scientific's Taxus drug-eluting stent and its Liberte and Express bare-metal stents infringed J&J's core Palmaz patent for balloon expandible stents.

The jury also found the Liberte stent infringed another patent, called the Gray patent, that covers flexible stent technology and expires in 2016.

A spokesman for Boston Scientific said the company plans to appeal the decision.

The verdict against Boston Scientific was largely expected by Wall Street after a separate jury in March ruled in a retrial that Boston Scientific's older-model Nir stent infringed on a J&J patent.

"What is less certain is the outcome of part two of the lawsuit, which involves Boston Scientific suing J&J for infringement of the Ding drug-coated patent," JP Morgan analyst Michael Weinstein wrote in a note to clients.

The jury trial set for August will determine damages owed to J&J's Cordis unit and whether the infringement was wilful.

If the jury found wilful infringement, US District Court Judge Sue Robinson could triple the damages judgment.

J&J, in a statement, said it would assert a patent claim against the drug-eluting version of Boston Scientific's next-generation Liberte stent once the product was launched, based on the jury's finding that the bare-metal Liberte stent infringed its Gray patent.

Analysts have said that monetary damages could surpass $1 billion (€820 million) if Boston Scientific lost on appeal, but the appeals process could take several years.- (Reuters)