European Patent Office revokes Edwards Lifesciences patent in TAVR spat with Boston Scientific

Boston Scientific (NYSE:BSX) said today that the European Patent Office revoked a patent owned by Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW) in the latest round of their ongoing spat over transcatheter aortic valve replacements.

In March 2017 a German court issued a mixed decision in the international battle over transcatheter aortic valve replacement patents between the two companies, less than a week after a U.K. patent court handed down a similar decision. Yesterday Boston said it’s confident that the new EPO decision “will have a positive impact on both suits.”

Meanwhile the U.K. High Court is slated to hear the next phase in that case in mid-May, Boston said.

In an email this morning to MassDevice.com, an Edwards spokeswoman said the company plans to appeal.

“We respectfully disagree with the EPO’s decision and will appeal. Edwards pioneered the field of [TAVR] for patients in need, holds the foundational patents for this technology and served as early inventors of the features that we see today on our SAPIEN 3 valve, and we are confident we will ultimately prevail in these matters,” she wrote.

Last month Boston claimed the upper hand in a mixed-bag patent win when the U.K. Court of Appeals dismissed an Edwards appeal, upholding an earlier decision that its Sapien 3 infringes a Boston Scientific patent. The appeals court found that all claims on a single Boston Scientific patent were valid. At the time Edwards added that the U.K. appeals court also found a separate Boston Scientific patent “valid and infringed.”

Boston Scientific said at the time that it plans to appeal a U.S. Patent Office inter partes review finding that certain claims of a US patent related to transcatheter heart valves owned by Boston Scientific asserted against Edwards are invalid. Edwards won a round in March when the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office ruled in its favor.

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