Smith & Nephew Endoscopy Awarded $85 Million in Patent Infringement Case Against Arthrex, Inc.

Smith & Nephew, Inc., Endoscopy Division, a subsidiary of Smith & Nephew plc SNN announced today that the jury in United States District Court in Oregon found in Smith & Nephew's favor that Arthrex, Inc., (Naples, Fla.) was guilty of infringing U.S. Patent 5,601,557, which is exclusively licensed to Smith & Nephew. The jury found that Arthrex's Bio-SutureTak, PEEK SutureTak, PushLock and Bio-PushLock suture anchors infringe the patent and awarded Smith & Nephew $85 million for Arthrex's past infringement activities. This is the second time Smith & Nephew won this patent infringement case in the Oregon Court. In June 2008, a jury decided that Arthrex willfully infringed the same asserted patent. At that time the jury awarded Smith & Nephew $14.7 million for past infringement. In November 2009, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit revised the interpretation of a term in the patent and sent the case back to the Oregon court for a new trial based on that revised claim interpretation.