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| Zimmer owes Stryker $228 million over patent infringement related to its Pulsavac Plus device.--Courtesy of Zimmer |
Zimmer ($ZMH) was already on the line to pay Stryker ($SYK) $70 million over patent infringement, and now a federal judge has more than tripled the award, ordering the company to fork over $228 million and barring it from selling the offending device.
At issue is Zimmer's Pulsavac Plus, a device designed to remove debris during orthopedic surgery, which Stryker claimed violated three of its patents. In February, a Michigan jury found in Stryker's favor, and, in ruling that Zimmer willfully infringed on the intellectual property, the jury left a window for U.S. District Judge Robert Jonker to increase the penalty.
And so that's what he did. In his opinion, quoted by the Indiana Business Journal, Jonker wrote that while a "$70 million verdict sounds large in the abstract," he chose to triple it "given the one-sidedness of the case and the flagrancy and scope of Zimmer's infringement."
Zimmer plans to appeal the $228 million decision, Reuters reports, and the company said it modified the design of Pulsavac Plus after the February verdict, making changes it believes now put the device outside the scope of Jonker's injunction.
Jonker reached $228 million by first tripling the initial $70 million award and then tacking on $7 million to cover infringing sales left out of the verdict and $11 million in interest and legal fees, the Journal reported.
- read the IBJ story
- get more from Reuters