Medtronic, Inc. announced that a federal US district court jury in San Francisco awarded it $57 million in past damages, finding that AGA Medical Corp.'s manufacture, sale and use of its Amplatzer Occluder and vascular plug product lines infringed claims of two US patents owned by Medtronic. The jury also ordered that AGA pay Medtronic a royalty of 11 per cent on future US sales of the infringing products through 2018.

The patents involved in this case are US Patent Nos. 6,306,141 and 5,067,957, known as the Jervis patents. The '141 patent covers self-expanding medical devices using stress to restrain a metal alloy that will expand to its original shape upon being released from a restraint, such as a sheath. For example, this invention allows doctors to locate and expand a medical device to repair holes in the heart, treat aortic aneurysms, place stents within the peripheral vasculature or treat damaged or diseased heart valves via a less invasive, transcatheter heart valve procedure. The '957 patent, which expired in 2004, covers a method of treatment using shape memory alloys, such as nitinol, in accordance with the Jervis inventions.

Medtronic is also asserting these same patents against W.L. Gore & Associates, Inc. in another case scheduled to begin August 31 in the same US district court.

Medtronic has widely licensed the Jervis patents to other medical device manufacturers in the US and will continue to offer licenses to this important technology.

Medtronic, Inc., headquartered in Minneapolis, is the global leader in medical technology - alleviating pain, restoring health and extending life for millions of people around the world.