Franklin, Tennessee-based Medacta USA, Inc. and Switzerland-based Medacta International SA (collectively “Medacta”) and Arlington, Tennessee-based MicroPort Orthopedics Inc. have entered into an agreement resolving MicroPort’s claims against Medacta.
Medacta and MicroPort Settle Patent Infringement Lawsuit
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Last year, MicroPort filed a lawsuit against Medacta alleging willful infringement of MicroPort’s patents and tortious interference with contract and business relations. The lawsuit claimed that in 2018, “Medacta sought to take market share from MicroPort by convincing surgeons to implant Medacta implants—rather than MicroPort implants—while still using MicroPort’s [p]atented [p]rocedures and instruments. This effort was critical to Medacta’s scheme to convert MicroPort’s implant distributors to becoming Medacta distributors.”
The complaint alleged that a MicroPort distributor, Advanced Surgical Devices, Inc., was essential to the purported “scheme.” MicroPort claimed that Medacta’s President, Eric Dremel, “enlisted” MicroPort’s distributor at the time, Advanced Surgical Devices, in order to “convince MicroPort’s surgeon customers to switch to Medacta’s implants.”
MicroPort further alleged that Dremel worked with the owner of Advanced Surgical Devices, to “develop custom-fabricated adapters for and knock-off copies of MicroPort instruments that enable surgeons to perform the [p]atented [p]rocedures with Medacta’s implants in violation of MicroPort’s patent rights.”
The MicroPort patented procedures at issue applied to minimally invasive hip replacement surgery. The litigation involved the following U.S. patent numbers: 7,105,028, SuperCap®, short for superior capsular; 7,833,229, PATH®, short for percutaneously assisted total hip replacement; 7,651,501, an improvement to the PATH procedure; 9,539,113, an additional PATH patent; 9,549,721, per the complaint “a surgical retractor with impactor for use” in a PATH or SuperCap procedure; and 10,478,317, SuperPath®, short for supercapsular percutaneously assisted total hip.
Per the Medacta press release and per the agreement, “Medacta USA will pay to MicroPort Inc. the sum of $7 million by five days after the signature of the agreement, the sum of $5 million over a term of seven years.” Additionally, “the settlement agreement contemplates the contribution by Medacta of marketing activities in a low single digit amount over a period of four years.”
The agreement also resolved MicroPort’s claims against Advanced Surgical Devices.
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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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