$432 Million Patent Infringement Verdict, Among Largest in United States

FEBRUARY 2008; TYLER TEXAS – Digital Evidence Group’s client was successful in
receiving a jury verdict of $431,867,351 for patent infringement, one of the largest ever in
the United States. The Court also awarded $69.4 million in pre-judgment interest. Bruce
N. Saffran, M.D., Ph.D., had accused Boston Scientific of infringing his patent covering
drug-eluting arterial stents. The jury found Boston Scientific’s Taxus Express
and Taxus Liberte stents infringed Dr. Saffran’s patent. The Taxus stents are sold to
provide directional drug delivery to an arterial wall once implanted, reducing restenosis,
or the re-closure of an artery by scar tissue. The drug delivered, Paclitaxel (a common
chemotherapy drug), is part of a layer coated on a bare metal stent with the polymer
SIBS. Consistent with Boston Scientific’s representations to the FDA that Paclitaxel is not
washed into the bloodstream, the jury determined that the layer, as claimed by
Dr. Saffran, delivered the hydrophobic Paclitaxel directionally to the hydrophobic arterial
wall.
Curt Evans, a DEG principal, commented, “Digital Evidence Group is proud to have
provided trial consulting services to Dr. Saffran and the attorneys at Dickstein Shapiro
and the Albittron Firm. For this patent infringement case in the Eastern District of Texas,
the Court only allocated 12 hours per party to try the entire case, so it was extremely
important that the presentation to the jury was clear and smoothly run. As a result of long
hours preparing documents and witness video, the team did an amazing job of clearly
presenting a complex case to a jury in a short period of time. When you come well
prepared, the jury picks up on that, and it bolsters the credibility of the arguments you’re
making.”
The jury determined a reasonably royalty to be 8% of Boston Scientific’s U.S. sales, and
6% on stents made in the US but sold internationally. The case, Bruce N. Saffran, M.D.,
Ph.D. v. Boston Scientific Corporation, was heard by Judge T. John Ward in the U.S.
District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. Dr