Boston Sci and Medtronic Argue Patent Case Before Supreme Court

In the latest chapter of an ongoing patent dispute between Medtronic and Boston Scientific, Justices in the United States Supreme Court appeared to favor Medtronic. On November 5th, both companies appeared in court, arguing over the burden of proof required in a patent dispute.According to Medtronic, Boston Scientific must be able to prove in court that Medtronic's devices and technologies infringe on Boston Scientific's licensed patents. For Medtronic, this is a more desirable process than one that would require it to prove that its products are not in violation of Boston Scientific's patents. For its part, Boston Scientific argued before the court that it is not required by law to bear this burden since it did not initiate the lawsuit. Since the initial lawsuit was brought to the court by Medtronic while it was still under a CRT patent licensing agreement, both companies are faced with a unique legal dilemma. It's not clear which company is the defendant or the plaintiff.Both patents in this case cover technologies associated with cardiac resynchronization therapies. When Boston Scientific and Medtronic first agreed on a licensing deal, there weren't an entire family of CRT patents."[Medtronic was] really emphatic that the Declaratory Judgment Act is a procedural statute that shouldn't affect substantive rights and that the burden of proof is a substantive right. That argument seemed to resonate with the justices. I think a lot of the justices picked up on that, and in their questions they really pressed that point with [MFV and Boston Scientific]," noted Ken Kuwayti of Morrison & Foester.