A federal jury in Los Angeles has dealt Medtronic a defeat in its efforts to prevent former partner Nova Biomedical from selling a line of blood glucose meters that are able to communicate wirelessly with Medtronic insulin pumps.
At trial, Medtronic alleged that Nova misappropriated its trade secrets and sought $30 million in damages and an injunction removing the meters from the market. But an eight-person jury unanimously rejected all of the claims Friday, after three weeks of trial. Bradford Badke, a New York-based partner at Ropes & Gray who was lead counsel for Nova, contends that the case came down to the testimony of expert witnesses.
"They said that the technology incorporated in Nova's meter was trade secret communication technology that only they had the right to use," says Badke. "The testimony of our experts demonstrated that the information Medtronic said was secret was not, because it was in a publicly available product and anyone could ascertain it from looking at the product."
September 16, 2009
From the News Wire: Medtronic Meters & Pumps Rulling
Medtronic was trying to stop a former partner from making a meter that talks to their pump. Maybe this ruling will open the doors to other meters talking to pumps. Hello WaveSense you're up to bat dudes.
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Bennet
ReplyDeleteThanks for pointing this one out.
One of the annoying things about data standards is that all the diabetes device companies say their data format is 'proprietary' information. I wonder if this outcome will change their minds. Medtronic's got deep pockets, others don't.
I suspect/hope this may make data formats more accessible as well as opening the door to more interoperability between devices from various vendors.
Hmmm, my captcha word is dimbow. I wonder if that's their impression of Medtronic!
I think this could be a good thing. In short that transitions over the public air are open.
ReplyDeleteI keep hearing that one of the thigs that hurt cosmo was Medtronic claiming they had an exclusive right to transmit to and from a pump as if the Marconi experiment hadn't already happened.