A jury in the US District Court for the Northern District of California has found against Spectranetics’ wholly-owned subsidiary, AngioScore, the plaintiff in a lawsuit seeking damages and other relief for patent infringement against defendants Eitan Konstantino, TriReme Medical, Quattro Vascular and QT Vascular related to defendants’ Chocolate PTA balloon catheter. The jury also found that certain claims of the asserted patent are invalid.
The patent verdict has no impact on the court’s findings or award of damages in connection with the breach of fiduciary duty claims or the ability to recover advanced fees and costs. The patent infringement claims are part of the lawsuit in which the court previously found that Konstantino, a former board member of AngioScore and founder of TriReme Medical, and other defendants, breached his fiduciary duties to AngioScore, that TriReme and Quattro aided and abetted that breach, and that QT Vascular is liable for the acts of TriReme and Quattro. In that portion of the case, the court awarded AngioScore over US$20m against all defendants plus disgorgement from Konstantino of all benefits he accrued from his breach of fiduciary duties, including amounts he received for assigning his intellectual property rights to the Chocolate balloon, a royalty on past and future sales of the Chocolate balloon, and all of his shares and options in QT Vascular.
“Although we are disappointed by the jury’s verdict, we are pleased this paves the way for entry of the judgment against the defendants in the breach of fiduciary duty portion of this case. This verdict has no bearing on our leadership position in the scoring balloon market, our commercial execution or future pipeline,” said Scott Drake, president and chief executive officer of Spectranetics.
Spectranetics is considering its options with respect to the jury’s verdict on the patent infringement claims. Spectranetics acquired AngioScore in June 2014.
