A Medical Device Daily

A day after a patent decision went against it in the UK — and favoring Conor Medsystems (Menlo Park, California) — Boston Scientific (Natick, Massachusetts) and Angiotech Pharmaceuticals (Vancouver, British Columbia) reported that they have won a patent infringement case against Conor in the Netherlands. The District Court in The Hague found Conor’s CoStar paclitaxel-eluting stent to infringe a key claim of the Dutch version of Angiotech’s European paclitaxel stent patent, and upheld the validity of that claim.

This claim of the European patent, the U.K. version of which was revoked by a U.K. court the day before (Medical Device Daily, Jan. 17, 2006), has now been upheld twice by The Hague District Court in two separate actions, the first of which was decided in May of 2006. The patent, which is valid and enforceable in all European jurisdictions except the U.K., is part of a worldwide patent portfolio exclusively licensed to Boston Scientific, it said.

The court granted Boston Scientific and Angiotech an injunction against Conor, prohibiting the company from selling the infringing CoStar paclitaxel stent in the Netherlands. The court also ordered Conor to pay damages and/or surrender profits resulting from the infringement.

The decision is appealable by Conor.

“This is a significant victory in a key area of our intellectual property,” said Dr. William Hunter, president/CEO of Angiotech. “Conor’s attempt to design around our patented technology has failed. Not only did the Court uphold Angiotech’s patent rights in the Netherlands, it also ruled that Conor’s stent infringes upon that intellectual property.

Angiotech said it “anticipates” additional review and further hearings of the various patent claims in this case, and that there are likely to be appeals with respect to this court decision.

In other legalities: Molecular Devices (Sunnyvale, California), a developer of solutions for drug discovery and life sciences, reported that the European Patent Office has upheld patent EP 1,040,349, held by Molecular Devices relating to automated electrophysiology (EP), granted by the European Patent Office on Sept. 5, 2001.

On June 4, 2002, Nanion Technologies filed an opposition with the EPO, requesting the revocation of the patent. The three-person opposition board of the EPO examined the request and delivered a final opinion rejecting all grounds for the opposition on Dec. 7, 2006, Molecular Devices said.

The ‘349 patent covers several aspects of automated EP, a field that Molecular Devices says it pioneered. Automated EP systems are designed to be used for the measurement of ion channels, a therapeutic target class for diseases of the cardiovascular and central nervous systems. Molecular Devices calls automated EP “an ideal technique for many ion channel scientific applications, from primary screening of directed compound libraries, to hit confirmation, selectivity testing, lead optimization and in safety testing. Its automated EP products include PatchXpress 7000A and IonWorks Quattro.

“We intend to continue to develop and commercialize patent-protected innovative products for life sciences research, such as the Ion Works and PatchXpress,” said Joe Keegan, PhD, President and CEO of MDC.

Molecular Devices’ solutions are based on its advanced core technologies that integrate its expertise in engineering, molecular and cell biology and chemistry. Molecular Devices enables its customers to improve research productivity and effectiveness, which ultimately accelerates the complex process of discovering and developing new drugs.