July 8, 2014 — CardiAQ Valve Technologies (CardiAQ), a leader in the field of transcatheter mitral valve implantation (TMVI), announced that the European Patent Office Legal Division issued a temporary stay of further proceedings in Neovasc’s pending European patent application covering TMVI technology. This action comes as the initial result of the lawsuit filed late June 2014 in Germany by CardiAQ against Neovasc.
CardiAQ, which performed the first ever Trans-Femoral, transcatheter mitral valve implantation procedure in June of 2012 with its self-conforming, self-anchoring implant technology, alleges that the subject matter of Neovasc’s pending European patent application is CardiAQ technology that Neovasc obtained from CardiAQ in 2009 and 2010 when the two were in a confidential supplier relationship. During that time, CardiAQ provided to Neovasc confidential information about CardiAQ’s TMVI technology so that Neovasc could fashion and attach valve tissue designed by CardiAQ to valve frames designed by CardiAQ. Without CardiAQ’s knowledge, and in express breach of the confidentiality agreement, Neovasc used that confidential CardiAQ information to not only develop a competing TMVI prosthetic, but to file patent applications on aspects of the technology in Europe and in the United States Through its pending patent applications, Neovasc is attempting to block CardiAQ from using its own technology.
In early June, CardiAQ also filed a lawsuit against Neovasc in Massachusetts in which CardiAQ seeks to preclude Neovasc from marketing a transcatheter mitral valve prosthesis that uses proprietary CardiAQ technology and from further prosecution of any U.S. patents in which Neovasc is seeking to protect confidential CardiAQ TMVI technology. That U.S. lawsuit is still in its early stages.
For more information: www.cardiaq.com