Medtronic has settled the lawsuit it initiated against AGA Medical Corp in 2007 for infringing its Jervis patent family.
Under the terms of the settlement, in consideration of AGA’s payments to settle the litigation, Medtronic and AGA expect to end the litigation and Medtronic will grant a non-exclusive license to AGA to use the Jervis patent family.
Medtronic said that the 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.
Medtronic has widely licensed the Jervis patent family to medical device manufacturers in the US and will continue to offer licenses to the important technology.