AVX has filed papers with a Delaware court
to abandon $37.5 million worth of patent infringement damages award to maker of
medical implants Greatbatch Ltd. Greatbatch claims that AVX’s products were
unfairly priced thus forcing Greatbatch to lower their prices. On January 26,
eight jurors ruled that AVX infringed on Greatbatch’s patents, and the award
was $37.5 million, $27 million which was for damages that Greatbatch could have
made if it didn’t have to unfairly cut its prices. A writer for the street
claims that, “the complaint, filed in April 2013, alleged that AVX had
infringed Greatbatch patents by manufacturing and selling filtered feedthrough
assemblies used in implantable pacemakers and cardioverter defibrillators that
incorporate its patented technology.”
U.S.
District Judge Leonard Stark received a letter from AVX in February claiming
that Greatbatch sold infringed products at a price that is said to be two to
three times higher than it said it had sold the products. Greatbatch says that
AVX was the sole cause of the lower prices, when AVX says that they could have
sold their products at the same price that Greatbatch sold their products at. The
main part of the claim of infringement comes with Greatbatch claiming that
AVX’s production and sale of alternative components for medical devices,
including pacemakers. AVX says that Greatbatch’s claims are late and faulty,
and that it was Greatbatch’s choice to sell the products at the lower price.
Judge Stark refused to give Greatbatch
damages on the products covered by Boston Scientific. He stands firm in his position
that Greatbatch’s settlement money could be taken back if AVX shows that
Greatbach’s lack of discosure interfered with the outcome of the case against
AVX.
The specific patents they infringed on
are U.S. Patent Number 5,333,095, which restricts the sale of a filter capacitor
assembly that is used in the pacemaker. The U.S. Patent Number 5,905,627
is for an internally grounded ceramic feed-through filter capacitor assembly
that protects pacemakers from signals that could interfere from cellular
phones.
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