A Medical Device Daily

Synergetics USA (O’Fallon, Missouri) reported that it has filed its first motion for summary judgment in the pending patent infringement lawsuit brought by Iridex (Mountain View, California) vs. Synergetics relating to Iridex U.S. Patent No. 5,085,492 (the ‘492 patent). Synergetics seeks a summary judgment asserting that Iridex has raised no genuine issue to be tried, based upon failure to bring its claim in a timely manner.

Iridex said that if the court agrees, the damages and injunctive relief sought by Iridex could be eliminated or reduced.

Synergetics said that Iridex has delayed its claims for a long period of time without bringing a lawsuit and that the delay allows Iridex to invest its resources, “laying in wait” to challenge Synergetics.

Synergetics earlier this year said that in response to Iridex’s lawsuit filed against it in October 2005, it designed a different connector system to interface its laser probe products to Iridex laser sources (Medical Device Daily, July 26, 2006).

Synergetics said that Iridex has known about Synergetics’ competitive adapter system since 1998, first threatening infringement in a letter in 1999. Synergetics said it promptly responded, refuting the charges and asking Iridex to provide specific information concerning its “generalized infringement charge.”

It said Iridex did not respond to the letter for almost three years. Then in 2002, Synergetics filed a declaratory judgment lawsuit against Iridex, asking the court to declare that its product did not infringe. That case was dropped when Iridex agreed not to pursue any claim.

Gregg Scheller, president/CEO of Synergetics, said that Iridex “has engaged in systematic attempts to differentiate our product from theirs, in the eyes of regulatory bodies, consumer journals, and the customer.” And up until this lawsuit, “Iridex maintained that our product was so different from theirs that it was unsafe and caused damage to their laser. We believe that this significantly weakens Iridex’s infringement case in front of the court.”

Iridex said that the lawsuit is entering its final phase before trial, which involves the taking of depositions. It said that last week it took the first deposition of Iridex’s sole expert in the case on the issues of infringement and invalidity. It said that in violation of federal rules, “in an eight-hour deposition, Iridex’s counsel objected to 517 of Synergetics’ questions — with more than 1,000 separate objections — and obstructed the fair examination of the witness. Synergetics said it has temporarily suspended further depositions until it resolves the situation with either Iridex or the court, “which should occur within the next week.”