A Medical Device Daily

Arthrex (Naples) reported that it has won an appeal in federal court over a patent infringement lawsuit filed by a S&N Endoscopy Division (S&N; Andover, Massachusetts), reversing a $23 million judgment stemming from a trial last year (Medical Device Daily, June 13, 2008).

The favorable ruling means that no injunction is pending against Arthrex's SutureTak or PushLock products, anchors used during arthroscopic shoulder surgery.

John Schmieding, general counsel for Arthrex, said he expects the plaintiffs, S&N and John Hayhurst, to pursue a new trial again in federal court in Portland, Oregon.

"I do expect that," Schmieding said, adding that a new trial will be based on patent claims proposed by Arthrex and not by S&N. "We are now fighting on our own terms."

S&N spokesman Joe Metzger offered a different interpretation of the appeals' court decision.

"The court of appeal did not enter a judgment of non-infringement in Arthrex's favor," Metzger said. "It was a claims' interpretation and because of that, they are sending it back for a new trial."

In June 2008, a Portland jury found Arthrex had willfully infringed on a patent held by Hayhurst, which is under exclusive license to S&N. At issue are suture anchors marketed by S&N as Tag Wedge, Tag Rod and Bioraptor. S&N filed the lawsuit in 2004.

The jury awarded $14.7 million in damages to S&N and the judge ordered damages and payment of royalties that brought the total to more than $23 million that Arthrex would have faced paying.

Arthrex argued that the patent originally issued to S&N is a method patent for inserting a resilient, winged suture anchor into bone to reconnect tissue to the shoulder socket.

Schmieding said last year that S&N argued the patent also applied to any surgical technique involving any anchor device that is resilient. Arthrex countered that its anchors don't rely on resiliency to lodge in the bone.

The case had gone to trial twice before, with the first trial resulting in a hung jury and the second with a verdict favoring S&N.

In other legalities, SMI (Irvine, California) reported that it will recover $6.5 million, including $2.5 million in punitive damages, from Staar Surgical (Monrovia, California).

SMI was a former authorized independent sales company for Staar. Staar manufactures and sells specialized lenses for surgical vision correction, such as replacement lenses for the eye's natural crystalline lens in cataract surgery. SMI prevailed against Staar for intentional and negligent interference with SMI's prospective economic advantage to sell the products of one of Staar's competitors.