Jury Finds Valve Infringes on Edwards' Patent

April 2, 2010 – A federal jury yesterday found Medtronic’s CoreValve transcatheter aortic valve willfully infringes on patents owned by Edwards Lifesciences.

Edwards said it intends to seek a permanent injunction. The jury also awarded Edwards $74 million in damages, and the willfulness finding allows Edwards to seek increased damages of up to three times that amount, the company said.

The patent involved in this suit is part of the Andersen family of patents, which relates to a valve prosthesis for implantation by means of a catheter. Filed in February 2008 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, this suit was directed at the manufacture or sale of the CoreValve ReValving System in the United States.

Two previous courts said CoreValve did not infringe the patent. In January 2009 the Patents Court in the United Kingdom found CoreValve’s specific product design did not infringe Edward’s patent. In October 2008, the District Court of Düsseldorf, Germany, also found no infringement of that patent by CoreValve.

For more information: www.edwards.com