Minnesota Judge Throws Out Devicemakers’ IP Dispute

A federal judge threw out an intellectual property dispute between two medical device manufacturers and ruled that all still-live claims must be tried in India.

In its complaint, India-based Phoenix Cardiac Devices accused Minnesota-based Mardil of running afoul of the two devicemakers’ August 2012 IP license agreement, under which both companies were to develop their own independent cardiac device based on Mardil’s intellectual property.

Phoenix argued the other devicemaker filed a reissue application in January 2014 for a patent involving Mardil’s VenTouch device and involving uses Mardil agreed were off-limits during the non-compete period, which was effective through August 2015.