Abbott taken to court over coronary stent patent
California-based FlexStent accused healthcare company Abbott Laboratories of infringing a stent patent earlier this week, with the filing of a lawsuit at the US District Court for the Central District of California.
On Monday, November 26, FlexStent claimed that Abbott was infringing US patent number 6,187,035, called “Vascular stent”.
Abbott, and its subsidiaries Abbott Vascular and Abbott Cardiovascular System, allegedly infringe the patent through the sale of coronary stents, in particular the Xience line of drug-eluting stents.
Claim 1 of FlexStent’s patent describes a vascular stent which comprises “vertical branches whose width and thickness range 0.09 to 0.12 mm and 0.08 to 0.12 mm, respectively”.
And, according to the lawsuit, Abbott’s Xience Prime stent is made up of vertical branches that have a width of approximately 0.0039-0.0040 inches (0.09906-0.1016 mm).
FlexStent also accused Abbott of indirect infringement through the sale of the stents.
“Furthermore, defendants knew or were wilfully blind to the fact that their users and resellers’ actions in response to such encouragement and instruction would infringe the ‘035 patent,” said the suit.
Abbott has been aware of the patent since May 2015, when a prior owner of the patent sent a letter to Abbott informing it of the infringement, alleged FlexStent.
The California-based company is seeking royalties, enhanced and compensatory damages, and a jury trial.
In March 2017, a physician at Aurora Health Care filed patent infringement complaints against Boston Scientific, St Jude Medical and Abbott Laboratories, accusing the companies of infringing US patent number 6,638,268, called “Catheter to cannulate the coronary sinus”.
According to the complaints, Boston Scientific infringed the patent by selling a “telescoping catheter system” called Acuity, with St Jude and Abbott selling a similar product under the name CPS.
The suit against Abbott and St Jude was dismissed for lack of jurisdiction in November 2017.
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