Delaware Jury Awards $37.5 Million In Damages For Infringement Of Medical Device Patent

Posted on Jan 27, 2016 in Blog

On January 26, 2016, a District of Delaware jury awarded Greatbatch Ltd. $37.5 Million in damages in the Greatbatch Ltd. v. AVX Corporation and AVX Filters Corporation (collectively “AVX”) patent litigation^[1].  Greatbatch Ltd. is a medical device and medical component company with its principal place of business in New York.  AVX is a manufacturer and supplier of electronic passive components and interconnect solutions with its principal place of business in South Carolina.

The jury found AVX indirectly infringed claim 12 of U.S. Pat. No. 5,905,627 (the “’627 Patent”) and directly infringed claims 4, 6, and 9 of U.S. Pat. No. 5,333,095 (the “’095 Patent”).  Additionally, AVX admitted to infringing claims of U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,765,779 and 6,888,715 (the “’779 Patent” and “’715 Patent” respectively).  Trials determining willful infringement of the ‘715 Patent and infringement and damages for the ‘779 Patent will be held at a later date.  The jury found all asserted claims of the patents-at-issue not invalid.

The ‘627 Patent, entitled “Internally Grounded Feedthrough Filter Capacitor,” and the ‘095 Patent, entitled “Feedthrough Filter Capacitor assembly for Human Implant,” claimed technology relating to shielding implantable medical devices from external interference signals.

While patent litigation has generally slowed across all districts over the past year, it appears medical device litigation remains strong in the District of Delaware.

– by R Touhey Myer

[1] Greatbatch Ltd. v. AVX Corp. et al., No. 13-723, (D.Del. Jan. 26, 2016).