Medtronic gains upper hand in AGA patent action
This article was originally published in Clinica
Executive Summary
Medtronic has gained the advantage in its patent dispute with AGA Medical after a US district jury court in San Francisco ruled in the former’s favour during the first phase of the trial. The jury found that AGA’s Amplatzer occluder and vascular plug product lines infringed two Medtronic patents and ordered AGA to make a $57m payment to Medtronic, a fee which AGA claims is only “about half of what Medtronic had originally sought”. AGA will also make royalty payments of 11% on future US sales of the infringing devices through 2018. The second, non-jury phase is scheduled for later this year. Medtronic is also currently asserting these patents in a separate case against WL Gore due to begin in the same court on August 31.