OrbusNeich Files Patent Infringement Lawsuit Against Boston Scientific
March 16 2009 - 11:23AM
PR Newswire (US)
FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla. and HONG KONG, March 16 /PRNewswire/ --
OrbusNeich Medical, Inc. ("Orbus" or the "Company"), a designer,
developer, manufacturer and marketer of innovative medical devices
for the treatment of vascular diseases, today announced that it has
filed a lawsuit against Boston Scientific Corporation ("BSC"). The
lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern
District of Virginia, asserts claims against BSC for patent
infringement, breach of contract and for misappropriation of trade
secrets. The suit seeks unspecified monetary damages and injunctive
relief in connection with its claims. Orbus is the owner by
assignment of all right, title, and interest in U.S. Patent No.
7,329,277 entitled "Stent Having Helical Elements" and U.S. Patent
No. 6,821,292 entitled "Crimpable Intraluminal Endoprosthesis
Having Helical Elements." In its complaint Orbus alleges, among
other things, that BSC has infringed these two Orbus patents
relating to its proprietary luminal stent technology. Specifically
the complaint alleges: -- In July of 2000, the Company entered into
a Confidential Disclosure Agreement (the "CDA") with BSC in advance
of discussions related to a potential business relationship; -- In
connection with these discussions, Orbus provided BSC with a
variety of proprietary stent samples and design details, including
improved designs present in Orbus' patent application filed in
December of 2000, which BSC tested, disassembled and destroyed; --
Orbus filed provisional patents on certain elements of its design
on December 11, 2000 and February 9, 2001. The final associated
patents were lawfully issued on February 12, 2008 and November 23,
2004, respectively; -- BSC filed a patent application with new
stent design drawings that were not included in any of the
provisional applications over which this new application claimed
priority; -- After BSC commercialized the Liberte stent, Orbus
became aware of the theft of its designs by BSC; and -- BSC has
been manufacturing and selling its line of Liberte stent products
without consideration to Orbus, the original designer of major
aspects of the Liberte product architecture, itself. "OrbusNeich
has made significant investments of both funds and resources to
develop this innovative technology that is a considerable
improvement upon existing cardiovascular devices," said Al Novak,
President and Chief Executive Officer. "The protection of these
technologies is of the utmost importance to OrbusNeich, and the
many talented people who worked to develop them. OrbusNeich has an
obligation to its investors, employees and its physician customers
and their patients to protect that property from those who seek to
infringe upon its rights. We do not anticipate that this process
will have an impact on our employees, customers or vendors."
Additional information about background, products, associated
patents and the charges raised, please view the Company's Complaint
as submitted to the United States District Court for the Eastern
District of Virginia. Copies of the Complaint can be obtained
through the Court's electronic filing system at
http://www.vaeb.uscourts.gov/. About OrbusNeich OrbusNeich designs,
develops, manufactures and markets innovative medical devices for
the treatment of vascular diseases. Products in the company's
product portfolio are stents, balloons and guiding catheters
marketed under the names of Genous(TM) Bio-engineered R stent(TM),
Blazer(TM), R stent, Scoreflex(TM), Sapphire(TM), Sapphire(TM) NC,
Avita(TM), Avita HP(TM), SafeCut(TM), Lumina(TM) and Saffron. A
global company, OrbusNeich is headquartered in Hong Kong and has
operations in Fort Lauderdale, FL; Hoevelaken, The Netherlands;
Tokyo, Japan; and Shenzhen, China. OrbusNeich, which has provided
cardiology devices to physicians through its predecessor companies
since 1979, today supplies products to interventional cardiologists
in more than 60 countries. For more information, visit
http://www.orbusneich.com/. Media Contacts: Dan Katcher / Ed
Trissel Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher +1 212-355-4449
(office) DATASOURCE: OrbusNeich Medical, Inc. CONTACT: Dan Katcher,
, or Ed Trissel, , both of Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher,
+1-212-355-4449 (office) Web Site: http://www.orbusneich.com/
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