In late August, Dallas-based intellectual property and business litigation law firm Caldwell Cassady & Curry won a $8.2 million patent infringement verdict for Acantha LLC against medical device manufacturer DePuy Synthes, a subsidiary of health care giant Johnson & Johnson.
Following a seven-day trial in Green Bay, Wisconsin, a jury unanimously reached a verdict that the defendant had infringed an Acantha patent, U.S. Patent No. RE43,008 (‘008 patent), which covers an orthopedic implant assembly used to join bone segments. Acantha’s ‘008 patent was originally issued in 2001 before being reissued in 2011 by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
The Caldwell Cassady & Curry trial team representing Acantha at trial included Brad Caldwell, Austin Curry, Chris Stewart, John Summers and Seth Reich.
Jurors heard evidence that David Talaber, one of the two co-inventors of the ‘008 patent, informed DePuy Synthes’s predecessors about the patent in writing and by phone the year after it was issued.
Mr. Talaber’s co-inventor, Dr. James Lloyd, later traveled to DePuy’s Massachusetts headquarters in 2006 to explain how Acantha’s patent could help with problems DePuy experienced with its implant devices. The DePuy companies never licensed the patent.
Acantha asserted that DePuy Synthes subsequently infringed the ‘008 patent in a series of spine implant devices.
The Green Bay jury found that the DePuy companies willfully infringed Acantha’s patent, awarding $8.2 million in actual damages. The case is Acantha LLC v. DePuy Synthes Sales Inc., et al., No. 1:15-CV-01257.
Leaders In The Law reported on Caldwell Cassady & Curry’s unanimous $502.6 million patent infringement verdict against Apple Inc. in April. Read about it here.
This is the latest in a long line of victories against Johnson & Johnson. Read about multibillion-dollar class action the company lost in relation to cancer-causing asbestos in its powder products here.