Guidant suit against Boston Scientific revived

WASHINGTON (Bloomberg) — A federal appeals court reinstated a patent-infringement
lawsuit Guidant Corp.’s Advanced Cardiovascular Systems unit filed against Boston
Scientific Corp. over a flexible coronary stent. The U.S. Court of Appeals for
the Federal Circuit last week overturned a lower court ruling that said Boston
Scientific’s Scimed Life Systems Inc. didn’t infringe five patents held by Advanced
Cardiovascular. The case was covered by the settlement agreement of patent disputes
between Boston Scientific and Guidant that was announced in May 2000, said Boston
Scientific spokesman Paul Donovan. The settlement ended 11 disputes in the U.S.
and Europe involving devices and methods to treat clogged arteries, the companies
said at the time. The patents are for a stent that can be placed in a patient’s
blood vessel and will expand and stay expanded. The patents relate to a process
for making the stent and methods for using it. The appeals court said the trial
judge who dismissed the suit erred in interpreting terms used in the patents.