The IP Battleground

Originally Published MX November/December 2003

COVER STORY

With their recent IP victories in European courts, Medinol's Kobi Richter and Judith Richter are shaking up medtech's cardiovascular sector.

Interview by Steve Halasey

Generally speaking, professional experts are loath to predict the future. However mild they may be, such "forward-looking statements" are the stuff of the legal caveats that flesh out every company press release and occupy page upon page in every corporation's annual report.

So perhaps it should be no surprise that analysts have so far had little to say about the remarkable run of triumphs enjoyed by stent manufacturer Medinol Ltd. (Tel Aviv, Israel) in European intellectual property (IP) litigation against market leaders Johnson & Johnson and Boston Scientific (see sidebar, "A Run of Favorable Rulings"). Since the middle of this year, Medinol has won a number of key cases, forcing J&J to withdraw its BX Velocity and Cypher drug-eluting stents from the Dutch market and compelling Boston Scientific to withdraw its Express and Taxus stents from the German market and submit accounts for damage calculations.