BARRY’S MEDTRONIC AWARD UPPED 20% DUE TO “RECKLESS” COPYING (Orthopedics This Week)
The federal judge that awarded Texas spine surgeon Mark Barry, M.D., $20.3 million after finding that Medtronic, plc "actively induced" infringement of patents covering spinal deformity repair services held by Barry, has thrown in an additional 20% given evidence of "reckless" copying by the company.
Lenke and Medtronic Errors
Law 360 reported on April 21, 2017, that in assessing the appropriateness of a damages enhancement, "the court, among other things, analyzed the actions of Lawrence Lenke, M.D., Medtronic’s chief medical surgical consultant. As the chairman of an industry conference to which Barry had submitted an abstract for his now patented method and system, Lenke reviewed the submission and around the same time, directed his company to prepare to file a patent application."
“At trial, the jury learned that Dr. Lenke had ‘accidentally’ listed Dr. Barry’s patents on his own CV,” Federal District Judge Ron Clark noted. “There is no evidence that anyone at Medtronic investigated the origins of Dr. Lenke’s work once Dr. Lenke submitted the internal paperwork for a patent, which supports a dete...
