In Brief: U.S. Surgical/Ethicon
This article was originally published in The Gray Sheet
Executive Summary
U.S. Surgical/Ethicon: Dismissal by the federal court of appeals of Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Ethicon's trocar patent infringement claims against U.S. Surgical allows USSC to proceed to trial with its own patent infringement claims against Ethicon, the firm states in a Feb. 4 release. The appeals court dismissal affirms the earlier dismissal by the U.S. District Court in Hartford, Connecticut ("The Gray Sheet" Feb. 17, 1997, In Brief). The three patents in question involve all of the safety-shielded trocars manufactured by Ethicon since 1990. "Damages could exceed $500 mil. before trebling" if USSC prevails, the firm claims...