Medtronic, Inc. (Medtronic) has settled a patent lawsuit it initiated against W.L. Gore & Associates. Medtronic sued W.L. Gore in 2006 for patent infringement of selected patents in Medtronic’s Jervis and Wiktor patent families. Specific terms of the settlement agreement are confidential.
Medtronic expects to recognize a one-time gain in the company’s second fiscal quarter ending October 30, 2009, in connection with the settlement.
Patents in the Jervis patent family, the last of which is scheduled to expire in 2018, cover the use of stress to restrain certain self-expanding medical devices made of nitinol. Nitinol is a shape-memory metal alloy frequently used in medical device applications, including Medtronic’s own transcatheter coronary heart valve program. The last patent in the Wiktor family expired in 2007.