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Medtronic Sues Biomet And EBI Spine For Patent Infringement

Medtronic, Inc. (NYSE: MDT) announced today that its spinal business, Medtronic Sofamor Danek, Inc., has filed suit against Biomet Inc. and its subsidiary EBI Spine, L.P. for patent infringement.

The suit, which involves seven Medtronic patents and seeks injunctive relief and monetary damages, was filed in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey.

Three of the patents (6,916,320 6,592,586 6,428,542) were purchased by Medtronic in 2005 from Gary K. Michelson, M.D. and involve single-lock anterior cervical plating systems used in cervical spinal fusions. Medtronic claims that a cervical plate marketed by Biomet under the trade name VueLock® Anterior Cervical Plate System, and openly promoted as a plate that has a “Secure One Step Locking” mechanism feature, infringes these Michelson patents, now owned by Medtronic. In previous litigation, Biomet and its subsidiary Cross Medical, were found to infringe two different Medtronic cervical plate patents.

The other patents (5,810,878 6,036,692 6,440,133 6,790,209) involve rod reducer instruments and surgical implantation methods commonly used in spinal surgeries to implant pedicle screws. Biomet’s pedicle screw systems utilize a rod reducer instrument in a variety of lumbar and thoracic spinal fusion surgeries. Rod reducers are integral to modern spinal surgery, reducing operating room time, improving efficiency and enabling surgical corrections that would be unattainable without the device.

“Medtronic has invested heavily in money, time and resources to develop and incorporate our intellectual property into our commercial products,” said Pete Wehrly, senior vice-president and president, Medtronic’s Spine and Navigation business. “We guard our intellectual property as one of our most important assets and will take the necessary legal actions to protect the use of our intellectual property in the marketplace.”

Medtronic Inc.

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