Zimmer’s Cayenne Medical buries the hatchet with MedShape after patent board loss

Zimmer Biomet (NYSE:ZBH) subsidiary Cayenne Medical buried the hatchet with MedShape after a patent review board found the terms of its soft tissue anchor patent to be “indefinite.”

Cayenne sued MedShape in 2014, alleging infringement by MedShape’s ExoShape device of 2 of its patents covering the AperFix soft tissue anchor. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for Arizona, alleges that MedShape hired former Cayenne salespeople with knowledge of the 2 patents at issue.

Cayenne alleged that MedShape hired former regional sales manager Josh Ray and ex-marketing vice president Tim Nash, both of whom were allegedly aware of the patents covering the AperFix device. Soon after MedShape won 510(k) clearance from the FDA for the ExoShape device, the lawsuit contends, the company began targeting Cayenne’s AperFix customers.

But a review by the Patent Trial & Appeal Board at the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office found that the claims asserted in the lawsuit were too vague and invalidated the patent. Judge Russel Holland  of the Arizona district court agreed, granting partial summary judgment to MedShape in May, according to court documents. Earlier this month Cayenne, which was acquired by Zimmer Biomet (NYSE:ZBH) in May, agreed to dismiss the case, according to the documents.

“This ruling and the path taken to get here demonstrate that MedShape has and will continue to vigorously defend our business, our freedom to operate, our intellectual property rights and our technology. It also means we will continue promotion of our excellent ExoShape ACL fixation system,” MedShape CEO Kurt Jacobus said in prepared remarks.

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