Medtronic wants $6m for legal fees in Mirowski spat

Medtronic (NYSE:MDT) asked a federal court for a $6 million award to cover its legal costs in the long-running battle with Mirowski Family Ventures involving patents licensed to Boston Scientific (NYSE:BSX).

A federal judge in Delaware ruled in June that MFV must cover legal costs in the case, which made it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court last year. Judge Susan Robinson of the U.S. District Court for Delaware ruled that MFV must cover the legal costs in the case, according to court documents.

Last week Medtronic asked Robinson to award more than $6 million in fees, “reflecting the amounts paid by Medtronic litigating this action from August 2007 through June 2015,” according to court documents.

“These are amounts billed by Robins Kaplan, lead counsel in this matter, and WilmerHale, whose attorneys were retained to represent Medtronic at the United States Supreme Court,” according to the filings.

MFV represents the estate of Dr. Michel Mirowski, who helped invent the implantable defibrillator. The group, which controls several patents related to implantable cardioverter defibrillators and cardiac resynchronization therapy devices, has been pursuing patent infringement cases against both Medtronic, Guidant and successor Boston Scientific for years.

Last week Judge Susan Robinson of the U.S. District Court for Delaware ruled that MFV must cover the legal costs in the case, according to court documents.

In January 2014, the Supremes ruled unanimously that MFV must prove Medtronic’s devices were in violation, even though Medtronic filed the original patent challenge in 2003, while still under a sub-license agreement for the technology. The high court in October 2014 declined to hear MFV’s petition that it revisit a lower court decision that Medtronic did not infringe MFV’s patents, which were sub-licensed to Medtronic through Guidant’s then-owner, Eli Lilly (NYSE:LLY). Boston Scientific acquired Guidant in 2006.

In late September 2014, a Maryland circuit court ordered that Boston Scientific pay MFV $309 million in back royalties and damages.

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