Boston Scientific and Nevro resolve long standing legal dispute over intellectual property

USA – American multinational manufacturer of medical devices, Boston Scientific and Nevro have settled a nearly six-year old patent dispute related to spinal cord stimulation technology.

Under the settlement, Massachusetts, United States-based Boston Scientific has agreed to pay US$85 million to Nevro to end all existing litigation between the two.

The dispute between the two began in May of 2015 when Boston Scientific filed petitions that challenged the validity of Nevro’s patents.

After the applications were rejected later that year, Nevro responded by accusing Boston Scientific of violating its patents.

In November of 2021, a jury ordered Nevro to pay Boston Scientific $20 million in a patent infringement case. The patents were related to the manufacturing of SCS technology.

In 2018 a federal judge in California issued a mixed ruling in the case, finding that six claims in three of the Nevro patents are eligible but also that Boston’s Spinal Cord Stimulation (SCS) devices don’t infringe those claims.

Judge Vince Chhabria of the U.S. District Court for Northern California, ruled that any claims in the patents describing a non-paresthesia-producing therapy effect are indefinite.

She also found that Boston’s use of the Spectra WaveWriter device in its Accelerate study doesn’t infringe because it falls under the clinical trial safe harbor even after the patients have completed the study.

Nevro said it still thinks that Chhabria’s decision precludes its rival from launching a high-frequency system in the U.S. and still plans to appeal the portions of his ruling that went against it.

Nevro shares at the time, ticked up 0.2% to $55.98 apiece then in the face of wide declines across the market while Boston Scientific shares were off -2.2% to $33.03 each likely reflecting those declines.

In November of 2021, a jury ordered Nevro to pay Boston Scientific $20 million in a patent infringement case. The patents were related to the manufacturing of SCS technology.

Nevro has agreed to give Boston Scientific a non-exclusive, non-transferable license to use paresthesia-free therapy at frequencies below 1,500 Hz as part of the settlement.

It distinguished its product by claiming that it relieves pain without paresthesia, a phrase that refers to tingling, buzzing, or numbness.

In return, Boston Scientific also will grant Nevro a worldwide, non-exclusive, non-transferable license under Boston Scientific’s asserted patent families.

Both firms have agreed not to sue each other over their current device features.

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