Biomet Gets Permanent Injunction against Medtronic

A U.S. district court in California has granted Cross Medical Inc. (Dublin, OH), a division of Biomet Inc. (Warsaw, IN), a permanent injunction against Medtronic Sofamor Danek, the spinal business unit of Medtronic Inc. (Minneapolis). The injunction follows a court ruling in April and covers multiaxial screws used in spinal fusion surgery that were found to infringe a Cross patent.

The injunction has been stayed for 90 days, and takes effect on August 22. However, Medtronic plans to appeal the decision and will ask the court to extend the stay pending a final ruling. The company had requested a 180-day stay “to ensure that patients and surgeons will continue to have access to our multiaxial screw technology.”

Medtronic’s DeMane: Predicts successful challenge.

Commenting on the court’s decision to grant Biomet an injunction, Michael DeMane, senior corporate vice president and president of Medtronic’s spinal, ENT, and navigation technologies business, said, “We disagree with this ruling and believe the judgments against Medtronic will be successfully challenged on multiple grounds ranging from procedural issues to more complex issues of patent interpretation and validity.”

Biomet hopes to reach a settlement before the injunction takes effect. Greg W. Sasso, Biomet vice president of corporate development and communications, said “We’d like to come to an agreeable settlement with Medtronic before that [the injunction] happens. We’ve had some back and forth negotiations but it’s my belief that this injunction will get both parties on a more serious basis.”

The injunction ruling pertains to just one of five patents that are in dispute in this case. The court ruling in April also stipulated that Cross Medical’s C-Tek anterior cervical plate and cross-links used with spinal implants infringed on Medtronic’s patents. Medtronic said it intends to seek appropriate damages for the infringement.

Biomet’s Miller: Intent to appeal.

At the time of the court’s ruling in April, Dane A. Miller, PhD, Biomet’s president and CEO, said, “We are pleased that the court found that Medtronic Sofamor Danek’s redesigned polyaxial screws infringe our patent, as we will continue to protect the unauthorized use of our valuable intellectual property rights. Although we were disappointed with the C-Tek and cross-links rulings, we intend to appeal those decisions.”

And, in a ruling issued just before the start of the Memorial Day weekend, the court reversed its previous April order and found that several claims in Cross’s patent related to cross-links used with spinal implants are not invalid. The court also refused to reconsider its prior decision that Medtronic’s redesigned multaxial screws infringe on the Cross patent.

Approximately 400,000 spinal fusion procedures are performed annually in the United States. The surgery is intended to minimize back pain and discomfort by stabilizing or fusing one or more of the vertebrae of the spine so that motion between adjacent vertebrae no longer occurs.

Medtronic Sofamor Danek employs 1200 people in Memphis, TN, and generated $2.1 billion in sales for the year ending April 30, 2005—about 21% of Medtronic’s total revenue of $10 billion.

Biomet, with 3620 employees, reported 2004 revenues of $1.62 billion, an increase of 16.5% over 2003 revenues of $1.39 billion.

© 2005 Canon Communications LLC

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