OrbusNeich sues Boston Scientific over stent patent infringement
The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, seeks unspecified monetary damages and injunctive relief in connection with its claims. The Hong Kong-based OrbusNeich said it is the owner by assignment of right, title and interest in U.S. Patent No. 7,329,277 and U.S. Patent No. 6,821,292. In its complaint, OrbusNeich alleges, among other things, that Boston Scientific has infringed these two OrbusNeich patents relating to its luminal stent technology.
OrbusNeich also said it provided, as part of a confidential disclosure agreement, Boston Scientific with a variety of stent samples and design details, including designs present in its patent application filed in December 2000, which Boston Scientific tested, disassembled and destroyed.
The company also alleges that Boston Scientific filed a patent application with new stent design drawings that were not included in any of OrbusNeich's provisional applications over which the new application claimed priority. OrbusNeich filed provisional patents on certain elements of its design on Dec. 11, 2000 and Feb. 9, 2001. The final associated patents were lawfully issued on February 12, 2008 and November 23, 2004, respectively.
After Boston Scientific commercialized the Liberte stent, OrbusNeich said it became aware of the theft of its designs by the company; and since that time "Boston Scientific has been manufacturing and selling its line of Liberte stent products without consideration to OrbusNeich, the original designer of major aspects of the Liberte product architecture, itself," the company said.
"OrbusNeich has made significant investments of both funds and resources to develop this innovative technology that is a considerable improvement upon existing cardiovascular devices," said OrbusNeich President and CEO Al Novak. "The protection of these technologies is of the utmost importance to OrbusNeich, and the many talented people who worked to develop them. OrbusNeich has an obligation to its investors, employees and its physician customers and their patients to protect that property from those who seek to infringe upon its rights."