Alphatec Has Partial Victory in Court Battle With NuVasive

In an ongoing battle with NuVasive, Inc., the court’s latest ruling on a motion to dismiss hands Alphatec Holdings, Inc. a partial victory.

The litigation involves NuVasive, Alphatec, and Patrick Miles. Based in California, NuVasive and Alphatec are both medical technology companies focused on spine surgery. Miles is currently the chairman and chief executive officer of Alphatec.

Prior to joining Alphatec, Miles spent 17 years at NuVasive. He resigned from NuVasive as NuVasive’s vice chairman and member of NuVasive’s board of directors. He had previously served as NuVasive’s president and chief operating officer.

The dispute involves Miles’ departure from NuVasive. In the court documents, NuVasive alleges that Miles “developed a scheme while working at NuVasive to decamp to Alphatec, taking confidential information, employees, and customers with him.” In a prior ruling, the court had decided that while Miles had agreed to a non-compete agreement, the agreement was void under California law.

NuVasive filed its original complaint in this action in October 2017. NuVasive filed its second amended complaint against Alphatec and Miles in November 2019. The second amended complaint pleads ten counts, six against Alphatec.

In its second amended complaint for damages, NuVasive’s allegations against Alphatec include unfair competition, tortious interference with contract, tortious interference with prospective economic advantage, aiding and abetting breach of fiduciary duty, and deceptive and unfair trade practices under Florida and North Carolina law.

Alphatec filed a motion to dismiss the six counts. The court heard oral arguments in May 2020 and issued its opinion three months later. In its opinion, the court dismissed half of the counts against Alphatec.

The court dismissed NuVasive’s claim of unfair competition, tortious interference with prospective economic advantage, and aiding and abetting breach of fiduciary duty. The court denied Alphatec’s motion to dismiss NuVasive’s claims for tortious interference with contractual relations and deceptive and unfair trade practices under Florida and North Carolina law.

This is not the first instance of litigation between Alphatec and NuVasive. In 2018 NuVasive filed patent litigation against Alphatec. For OTW’s coverage of the patent litigation, see “District Court Grants Stay in NuVasive Litigation Against Alphatec.”