Datascope Gets Arrow Infringement Verdict Thrown Out (Update2)

By William McQuillen

Oct. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Datascope Corp. persuaded an appeals court to throw out a 2007 verdict that the maker of medical devices violated three patents belonging to Teleflex Inc.'s Arrow International Inc. and Johns Hopkins University.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington reversed the lower court ruling, throwing out the $690,000 in damages. The court said there wasn't enough evidence to support the infringement verdict. The patents are related to a system to remove blood clots in access grafts for hemodialysis patients.

A federal jury in Baltimore found in June 2007 that Datascope's device used technology owned by Johns Hopkins and licensed to Arrow, awarding damages. The award amounted to an 18 percent royalty on Datascope's sales of devices found to infringe the patents, Reading, Pennsylvania-based Arrow said at the time of the verdict.

Officials from Limerick, Pennsylvania-based Teleflex didn't return a call seeking comment. Teleflex bought Arrow last year.

Hemodialysis is a procedure to remove waste products from the bloodstream. Grafts are connections in the body that allow the blood to move in and out during treatment. According to one of the patents, clots in those grafts are a ``significant problem'' that can lead to hospitalization or death. The disputed devices are catheters that are inserted into the graft to break the clot into fragments.

Teleflex fell $2.80 to $59.34 today in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. Montvale, New Jersey-based Datascope fell 18 cents to $51.22 in Nasdaq Stock Market trading.

The case is Johns Hopkins University v. Datascope Corp., 07-1530, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (Washington).

To contact the reporter on this story: William McQuillen in Washington at bmcquillen@bloomberg.net .

Last Updated: October 2, 2008 16:18 EDT

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