In January 2011 a district court jury found that Cordis, in making its Cypher brand of drug-eluting stent, infringed upon the 1997 patent filed by Saffran. Stents are tiny mesh tubes used to prop open vessels once blockages have been removed. The award was the ninth-largest patent verdict in U.S. history, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. With more than $111 million in interest, the amount J&J was told to pay reached $593.4 million.
A federal circuit court overturned the district court's ruling in April 2013. Monday's Supreme Court decision not to hear the case leaves the federal circuit court's decision intact. The appeals court said the judge overseeing the trial misinterpreted Bruce Saffran's patent and that, under the correct definition of key terms, JNJ's Cordis unit wasn't using his invention. Saffran's patent deals with ways to treat injured tissue with the use of a permeable barrier.
New Brunswick, N.J.-based JNJ, once a leader in the controversial stent business, exited the market in 2011 and stopped manufacturing the Cypher stent.
Saffran also has sued Abbott Labs and Boston Scientific over the same patent.
JNJ did not respond to emails asking for comment.
The U.S. Supreme Court refused to revive a $482 million jury verdict against Johnson & Johnson over disputed heart devices, rejecting an appeal by a doctor who said the company infringed his patent.
The justices today left intact a federal appeals court decision that overturned the verdict. The appeals court said the judge overseeing the trial misinterpreted Bruce Saffran's patent and that, under the correct definition of key terms, J&J's Cordis unit wasn't using his invention.
The January 2011 jury award was the ninth-largest patent verdict in U.S. history, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. With more than $111 million in interest, the amount J&J was told to pay reached $593.4 million.
Saffran's patent deals with ways to treat injured tissue with the use of a permeable barrier. He claimed the invention was incorporated into Cordis's Cypher stents, tiny mesh tubes that prop open heart arteries after they are cleared of fat.
J&J, the company that pioneered the market for heart stents, exited the business in 2011. J&J is based in New Brunswick, New Jersey.
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