A jury awarded Acantha $8.2 million in damages, delivering a patent infringement verdict against medical device manufacturer Johnson & Johnson subsidiary DePuy Synthes.
Here are five insights:
1. After a seven-day trial and five hours of deliberation, a Wisconsin jury found DePuy companies willfully infringed Acantha's patent. The jury delivered the unanimous verdict Aug. 21.
2. In a 2015 lawsuit, Acantha accused DePuy Synthes of infringing on Acantha's patent for an orthopedic implant assembly designed to join bone segments.
3. During the trial, the plaintiffs said patent co-inventor David Talaber informed DePuy Synthes' predecessors about the patent both in writing and by phone.
4. The other co-inventor James Lloyd, MD, reportedly explained how the patent could alleviate DePuy's implant device problems during a later visit to DePuy's headquarters
5. The DePuy companies did not license the patent. Acantha claimed DePuy Synthes then infringed the patent in the Zero-P VA System and Vectra, Vectra-T and Vectra-One products, as well as other spine implant devices.