Tomorrow I’ll write about the design patent functionality questions in Ethicon Endo-Surgery v. Covidien, Appeal No. 14-1370 (Fed. Cir. 2015) (medical shears). Today, the focus is on the Federal Circuit’s reversal on indefiniteness. Here, the appellate court held that the district court had improperly invalidated the asserted surgical shear claims of Ethicon’s Patent No. 8,182,501. Before getting into the legal details, I wanted to write about the legal posture. This case involves Ethicon’s infringement allegations against its market competitor Covidien. In a parallel case, Covidien (Tyco Healthcare) sued Ethicon for infringing its shear patents. In that case, Covidien originally won a $177 million judgment that was then vacated by the Federal Circuit who found that the district court erred in its nonobviousness decision. In a recent filing, Covidien has…
↧