Federal Judge Lets Stand Patent Verdict Against AngioDynamics

A Federal District Court judge in Boston has denied a motion by AngioDynamics Inc. to overturn a patent infringement verdict handed down in late March.

A jury had found that the original design of the Queensbury medical device manufacturer’s VenaCure laser treatment for varicose veins infringed on a patent held by Diomed Inc. of Andover, Mass.

AngioDynamics stopped shipment of Venacure on April 27, and will begin June 2 to ship the NeverTouch VenaCure, which was altered to prevent it from coming into contact with the patient’s veins. Diomed’s treatment is based on contact with the vein. The VenaCure treatment was not, but Diomed protested the fact that contact could occur.

In a May 22 decision, the federal judge said that Diomed is entitled to some form of injunction, but did not rule on the scope. The court instructed AngioDynamics and Diomed to attempt to agree upon specific injunction language within one week. If the companies can not agree, they must submit additional briefs to the court by May 29.

AngioDynamics said it will continue to pursue an appeal. If it loses, it will have to pay Diomed a total of $9.71 million. This is $1.35 million higher than was originally stated, because the two companies agreed that damages should be increased to include pretrial interest and post-verdict sales.

The company recorded a $9.6 million litigation provision in its financial statements for the fiscal third quarter ended March 3.