MINNEAPOLIS — Medtronic is weighing its next steps after losing another round in a long-running patent dispute with med-tech competitor Teleflex Inc.
Teleflex has maintained that Medtronic violated its patents in 2019 with its product Telescope on its GuideLiner extension catheter technology originally developed in Maple Grove.
Medtronic challenged some of the patents and appealed an earlier decision by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Patent Trial and Appeal Board that sided with Teleflex. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit last week sided with the Patent Appeal Board.
Medtronic says it respectfully disagrees with the court decision.
"These decisions addressed a narrow subset of issues in a much broader case and have little impact on the underlying district court case," Medtronic said in a statement. "We remain confident in our defenses and believe that the patents will be found invalid or not infringed."
Doctors use extension catheters as an option for patients with narrow arteries to implant stents, balloons or other cardiological devices.
The catheter technology was originally developed by Maple Grove-based Vascular Solutions Inc. and introduced to the market under the GuideLiner brand in 2009. Pennsylvania-based Teleflex acquired Vascular Solutions in 2017 for $1 billion.
Teleflex sued Medtronic over patent infringement in 2019 over the Telescope product and charged "Medtronic did not develop the Telescope catheter on its own, but instead copied [Vascular Solutions'] GuideLiner catheter."
That lawsuit is still active.
In the wake of the infringement suit, Medtronic filed petitions to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board in 2019 challenging Teleflex patents. That board sided with Medtronic on some, but not all, of its claims. The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit was addressing patents that Medtronic continues to challenge.
The Appeals Court upheld a finding from the Patent Trial and Appeal Board that Medtronic copied the Teleflex device.
"In Medtronic's view, evidence of substantial similarity is 'irrelevant' because it does not show that Medtronic 'actually copied' the GuideLiner when developing the Telescope," the court said. "Medtronic's own internal documents concede the GuideLiner 'created the market' for guide extension catheters and enjoyed substantial market share."
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