Zoll wins German patent battle over intravascular temperature management tech

Zoll Medical ($ZOLL) defeated a German rival in a patent lawsuit, and the loser must stop selling its products designed for use with the company's intravascular temperature management device.

District Court in Munich, Germany, ordered ELan Med GmbH to stop making and selling products that work with the Zoll device, which is designed to use the intravascular system to help manage patient fevers if they have neurological injuries. On top of that, the court mandated that ELan pay 90% of court costs and ruled that Zoll could recover damages from sales going back to Jan. 18, 2012, that infringed on its patent. This affects both Zoll's Thermogard XP and CoolGard 300 systems.

No word yet if ELan Med GmbH can or will appeal the decision. But it's a competitive world for medical device companies and it's no surprise that Zoll worked so fiercely to protect its temperature management system patent. And ELan isn't Zoll's only target. The company is also suing Philips over a patent for patient monitoring equipment.

Asahi Kasei in Japan snatched up Zoll in 2012 for $2.2 billion, and Zoll's corporate parent also highly values the temperature management device. In February, for example, Zoll won a major regulatory approval to market the device in Japan--one of the globe's largest medical device markets outside of the U.S. And it will be marketed in Japan through an Asahi Kasei subsidiary. 

Zoll President James Palazzolo said in a statement that the company "will pursue all available legal remedies" against companies or individuals who they see as infringing on its patents.

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