Tiny AccessClosure notches a save in patent fight vs. St. Jude

In its legal battle with much-larger St. Jude Medical ($STJ), medical device company AccessClosure will walk away with a concession prize: They escape the threat of an injunction over their vascular puncture technology.

AccessClosure's Mynx vascular puncture device--Courtesy of AccessClosure

St. Jude sued AccessClosure over its Mynx device used to close holes in the arteries, claiming the device infringed three patents. AccessClosure will still pay St. Jude $27.1 million for infringing two patents that reportedly expired in 2010--but it looks like it's off the hook for a third patent (U.S. Patent Number 7,008,439) that could have kiboshed future sales of Mynx.

In September, a panel of three appeals court judges affirmed the $27.1 million judgment but reversed a District Court judge's earlier ruling, invalidating that third patent due to double patenting.

The Santa Clara, CA, company is set to pay St. Jude $27.1 million over products it sold prior to October 2010--when patents in St. Jude's so-called Fowler group of patents expired, according to an AccessClosure press release. The third patent is in another set, dubbed the Janzen patents.

This week an appeals court declined to rehear its September decision, AccessClosure said in a statement Wednesday.

"This is an outstanding day for our company," AccessClosure CEO Gregory Casciaro said in a statement. "The court's ruling on Janzen '439 is an important vindication that ends years of legal distraction. The timely decision allows the AccessClosure team to finally put this dispute behind us and enter 2014 with a clear focus on developing and delivering innovative, patient-friendly closure solutions and continuing to invest in new technologies that improve both the doctor and patient experience."

St. Jude didn't respond to a request for comment.

- read the press release
- get more: Law360's report