A federal jury in Delaware decided that Globus Medical, Inc. owes DePuy Synthes Products, LLC $16 million for patent infringement.
Globus Loses Patent Case to DePuy Synthes
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Secondary
However, a formal judgment has not been entered and there are still motions to be resolved at hearings.
In the June 14, 2013 verdict the jury found that prior versions of three products previously sold by Globus infringed on Synthes’ patents and awarded damages in the amount of $16 million. Globus challenged the validity of the three Synthes patents at issue, and the jury upheld the patents’ validity. There was no finding of willful infringement in this lawsuit.
Globus issued a statement saying the company did not expect the verdict to impact its ability to conduct its business or to have any impact on future revenues. “As this lawsuit involved only three products that are no longer part of Globus Medical’s product portfolio, this verdict will not impair the company’s ability to sell any of its current products and will not require any royalty payments to Synthes based on current or future sales.”
The company also said it will seek to overturn the verdict because they do not believe the facts and the law support the jury’s findings.
The suit was filed in 2011. The trial began June 3, 2013, and was overseen by U.S. District Judge Leonard Stark.
Intervertebral Implants
The patents in question are for intervertebral implants.
According to Google Patents, patent 7, 875, 076 was granted in January 2011. Inventors are Christopher Cain and Claude Mathieu. The objective of the invention is palliation. The invention creates an intervertebral implant which is able to rigidly connect to bone affixation means in a manner that even in the event of bone structure weakening, loosening between the intervertebral implant and the bone affixation means shall be precluded.
Patents 7, 862, 616 and 7, 846, 207 were granted in December 2010 and January 2011. Inventors of both patents are Dominique Burkard, Christopher Cain, Beat Lechmann and Claude Mathieu. The inventions are directed to an intervertebral implant which can enter into a permanent, rigid connection with bone fixation means, so that, even if the bone structure is weakened, there is no loosening between the intervertebral implant and the bone fixation means.
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Discussion
This is a fascinating development. In my practice we've seen similar outcomes with the revised protocol. The key differentiator seems to be patient selection criteria. Has anyone else noticed the correlation with BMI thresholds?
Great point. I'd push back slightly on the conclusion, the sample size in the cited study is too small to draw population-level inferences. That said, the directional signal is compelling and worth a larger RCT.
We implemented a similar approach last year. Early results are promising but we're still gathering 12-month follow-up data. Happy to share our protocol if anyone is interested.
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