The U.S. patent office takes a 1st pass at C.R. Bard’s stent graft patent and finds it wanting, while an insurance arbitrator denies a $25 million insurance claim stemming from legal claims against its recalled hernia repair products.
C.R. Bard (NYSE:BCR) revealed a 1-2 punch today when it reported another loss in its patent infringement war with W.L. Gore & Assoc. and an adverse insurance decision that could cost it $25 million.
The Murray Hill, N.J.-based medical device company said in regulatory filings that the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office issued an initial finding in its reexamination of a Bard patent for a “Prosthetic vascular graft,” known as the ‘135 patent.
That patent is part of Bard’s long-running patent battle with W.L. Gore & Assoc. over stent grafts, for which it is already on the hook for $186 million. The patent office, as its 1st move in a reexamination of the ‘135 patent, “issued an Office Action initially rejecting the reexamined claims of the ‘135 patent,” according to 1 of the filings.