Appeals court upholds Boston Scientific win over stent pioneer Jang

A federal appeals court today upheld a Boston Scientific (NYSE:BSX) win over coronary stent pioneer Dr. David Jang.

The case dates back to 1999, when Jang won approval from the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office for a stent design featuring lateral struts. In 2002, Jang inked a deal worth up to $160 million to license the patents to Marlborough, Mass.-based Boston Scientific; Jang received $50 million up front, according to court documents, but only $10 million of the remaining $110 million in milestone payments.

Jang sued in 2005, alleging breach of contract and other claims. Boston Scientific filed a counterclaim in 2006 “denying any obligation to make additional contingent payments to Jang on the ground that that the accused stents did not infringe,” and thus were not covered under the deal with Jang, according to the documents.

Judge Virginia Phillips of the U.S. District Court for Central California initially ruled that the Boston Scientific stents did not infringe the Jang patents, shot down the breach of contract claim and decided the other claims in Boston’s favor. After Jang appealed, the Federal Circuit in 2012 vacated the ruling and remanded it to Phillips.

A Patent Office re-examination in 2013 found the Jang patents invalid, prompting Boston Scientific to argue that it shouldn’t be required to pay royalties on invalid patents. Phillips denied that bid for summary judgment, ruling that Jang has the right to demand royalties covering the time up until Boston Scientific asked for the re-examination, according to the documents. Boston appealed, asking the Federal Circuit to review the Phillips decision; the appeals court in September 2014 declined to hear the petition. At trial the jury sent up a split verdict, finding that Boston Scientific did not literally infringe the Jang patents but did infringe under the doctrine of equivalents. Phillips found in 2015 that Jang’s claims covered previous patents, triggering an ensnarement defense barring a patentee from asserting a scope of equivalency that would encompass, or ensnare, the prior art.

Jang moved for judgment as a matter of law on the jury’s finding of no literal infringement, but Phillips found enough evidence to support the verdict and rejected Jang’s bid for a new trial. Jang appealed that decision, arguing that a reasonable jury couldn’t have found no literal infringement because the undisputed facts showed otherwise and Boston Scientific’s non-infringement arguments were legally erroneous.

Today the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld Phillips’ ruling, according to the documents.

The jury heard Dr. Jang’s theory of infringement and his supporting evidence but nevertheless found that the Express stent did not literally infringe. The district court did not fail to consider Dr. Jang’s theory of infringement and it correctly found substantial evidence to support the jury’s finding that the Express stent’s microelements do not literally meet the connecting-strut-column-related limitations,” the appeals court found. “Dr. Jang failed to persuade the district court that BSC’s non-infringement arguments were legally erroneous. We are similarly unpersuaded.”

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