Manufacturers Settle Lawsuit Over Self-Expanding Devices

March 29, 2010 – A lawsuit was settled between Medtronic and AGA Medical Corp. for the alleged infringement of patents concerning the use of stress to restrain self-expanding nitinol medical devices.

Under the terms of the settlement AGA will pay an undisclosed amount to Medtronic and Medtronic will grant a nonexclusive license to AGA to use the patent.

Medtronic filed the suite in 2007 for infringement of its Jervis patent family, the last of which is scheduled to expire in 2018. Nitinol is a shape-memory metal alloy frequently used in medical device applications, including Medtronic’s own transcatheter coronary heart valve program.

AGA uses nitinol in its Amplatzer series of transcatheter patent foramen ovale (PFO) and atrial septal defect (ASD) occluders.

Medtronic has widely licensed the Jervis patent family to medical device manufacturers in the United States and will continue to offer licenses to this important technology.

For more information: www.medtronic.com