US Court has affirmed $2.7m judgment in Vascular Solutions' favour
Vascular Solutions has reported that the first circuit of the US Court of Appeals has affirmed the judgment in its favor, in its product disparagement litigation with Marine Polymer Technologies.
The first circuit affirmed the jury’s verdict following a two week trial in April 2008, that five statements made by Marine Polymer representatives regarding Vascular Solutions’ D-Stat hemostat products were false.
The Court said: “The evidence provides ample proof of malice. The most inflammatory of the five statements, and the most glaringly unsupported, are the two that associated D-Stat Dry with specific and serious outcomes in percentages that would be remarkable for a relatively straightforward medical task to stop bleeding at a modest-size doctor-created incision.”
As a result, the permanent injunction issued at the conclusion of the trial will remain in effect, thereby prohibiting Marine Polymer and its representatives from making, publishing or disseminating the disparaging statements concerning the safety of Vascular Solutions’ D-Stat products.
Addressing the jury’s award of $4.5m in damages to Vascular Solutions, the Court determined that, due to differences in opinion among the judges, Vascular Solutions may either accept a $2.7m award of damages (plus interest) or insist upon a new trial limited to the issue of determining the reasonable amount of damages.