Cordis Corp. v. Boston Scientific Corp.

• Citation: 561 F.3d 1319
• Decision Date: 31 March 2009
• Docket Number: No. 2008-1003.,No. 2008-1072.,2008-1003.,2008-1072.
• Parties: CORDIS CORPORATION, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. BOSTON SCIENTIFIC CORPORATION and Scimed Life Systems, Inc., Defendants-Cross Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Federal Circuit

561 F.3d 1319

CORDIS CORPORATION, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. BOSTON SCIENTIFIC CORPORATION and Scimed Life Systems, Inc., Defendants-Cross Appellants.

No. 2008-1003.

No. 2008-1072.

United States Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit.

March 31, 2009.

Gregory L. Diskant, Patterson, Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP, of New York, NY,

argued for plaintiff-appellant. With him on the brief were Eugene M. Gelernter, Thomas W. Pippert, Kathleen M. Crotty, Scott W. Parker and Scott B. Howard. Of counsel was Michael J. Timmons. Of counsel on the brief was Constantine L. Trela, Jr., Sidley Austin LLP, of Chicago, IL.

John M. Desmarais, Kirkland & Ellis LLP, of New York, NY, argued for defendants-cross appellants. With him on the brief were Peter J. Armenio, Young J. Park and Timothy K. Gilman.

Before MAYER and DYK, Circuit Judges, and HUFF, District Judge.^*

DYK, Circuit Judge.

Cordis Corporation ("Cordis") appeals, and Boston Scientific Corporation and Scimed Life Systems, Inc. ("Boston Scientific") cross-appeal, from a final judgment of the United States District Court for the District of Delaware. The judgment was based on two separate jury verdicts of infringement: (1) infringement by Boston Scientific of claims 1 and 23 of U.S. Patent No. 4,739,762 ("the '762 patent") and claim 2 of U.S. Patent No. 5,895,406 ("the '406 patent"), and (2) infringement by Cordis of claim 36 of U.S. Patent No. 5,922,021 ("the '021 patent"). The judgment also determined that those claims were not invalid. Cordis Corp. v. Boston Scientific Corp., Civ. No. 03-027-SLR, 2007 WL 2775087 (D.Del. Sept. 24, 2007) (judgment). With one minor exception, we affirm.

BACKGROUND

Cordis and Boston Scientific own patents relating to intravascular stents, which are cylindrical lattice-like scaffolds inserted into a blood vessel and then expanded, often by using a balloon catheter, in order to hold the vessel open. Cordis owns the '762 patent and the '406 patent, and Boston Scientific owns the '021 patent.

In January 2003, Cordis filed suit against Boston Scientific, alleging that several of Boston Scientific's stents infringe various claims of the '762 patent and the '406 patent. Boston Scientific counterclaimed, alleging that several of Cordis's stents infringe various claims of the '021 patent. The district court denied Cordis's motion for a preliminary injunction against sales of one of Boston Scientific's stents, and we affirmed. Cordis Corp. v. Boston Scientific Corp., 99 Fed.Appx. 928 (Fed. Cir.2004).

We treat the Cordis claims and the Boston Scientific claims separately. Since Cordis is the appellant, we first discuss Boston Scientific's claims against Cordis that are the subject of the Cordis appeal.

The Boston Scientific claims: The jury returned a verdict in July 2005 that (a) Cordis's Cypher, BX Velocity, BX Sonic, and Genesis stents do not literally infringe claim 36 of the '021 patent; (b) "the Cypher, BX Velocity, BX Sonic and Genesis stents infringe the `corners' limitation of claim 36 of the '021 patent under the doctrine of equivalents"; and (c) claim 36 of the '021 patent is not invalid for obviousness. Cordis Corp. v. Boston Scientific Corp., Civ. No. 03-027-SLR, 2006 WL 1305227, at *1 (D.Del. May 11, 2006) ("Memorandum Opinion"). The district court denied Cordis's motion for judgment as a matter of law or, in the alternative, a new trial.

The Cordis claims: On summary judgment, the district court determined that claims 1 and 23 of the '762 patent were not invalid. A separate jury returned a verdict in favor of Cordis in June 2005 that (a) Boston Scientific's Express, Taxus Express, Express Biliary, and Libert é stents literally infringe claim 23 of the '762 patent; (b) Boston Scientific induced literal infringement of claim 1 of the '762 patent with respect to these stents; (c) the Libert é stent literally infringes claim 2 of the '406 patent; and (d) claim 2 of the '406 patent is neither anticipated nor rendered obvious by the prior art. The district court denied Boston Scientific's motion for judgment as a matter of law or, in the alternative, a new trial.

After the district court entered judgment, Cordis and Boston Scientific both timely appealed. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1291, 1292(c)(2), and 1295(a)(1).

DISCUSSION

We review the denial of a motion for judgment as a matter of law without deference, and we review the denial of a motion for a new trial for abuse of discretion. Hewlett-Packard Co. v. Mustek Sys., Inc., 340 F.3d 1314, 1318 (Fed.Cir. 2003). Each party raises issues that have little merit. We dispose of those arguments summarily, reserving more extended discussion for the few issues that merit attention.

I

We first address Cordis's appeal.

A. "Wherein" clause construction

Cordis challenges the judgment that its BX Velocity stent infringes claim 36 of the '021 patent. Claim 36 depends from claim 24, which in turn depends from claim 23. '021 patent col.22 l.42, col.21 l.16.

The procedural posture of this issue is unclear. The jury found that the accused Cordis stents do not literally infringe claim 36 of the '021 patent. Instead of addressing whether Cordis's stents infringed claim 36 under the doctrine of equivalents, the jury was asked only to determine whether Cordis's stents "infringe the `corners' limitation of claim 36 of the '021 patent under the doctrine of equivalents." J.A. at 11,238. The jury found that the "corners" limitation was infringed under the doctrine of equivalents. Apparently the parties agreed that the BX Velocity stent infringes all limitations of claim 36 (if properly construed by the district court) except the "corners" limitation, but the parties provided no reference in the record reflecting this agreement. However, the district court entered judgment of infringement of claim 36, and we assume that the judgment rests upon such an agreement.

Cordis first argues that the district court erred in construing the "wherein" clause of claim 23, and that under a proper construction of this clause Cordis's BX Velocity stent does not infringe claim 36.¹ The "wherein" clause of claim 23 describes how the struts within one expansion column or ring of a stent are connected to the struts of another column or ring,

wherein the first expansion strut of the first expansion strut pair in the first expansion column has a longitudinal axis offset from a longitudinal axis of the first expansion strut of the second expansion strut pair in the second expansion column.

'021 patent col.21 ll.11-15 (emphasis added). The district court construed this "wherein" clause in claim 23 to mean "the first expansion strut in the first column does not share a longitudinal axis with the second expansion strut in the second column." Cordis Corp. v. Boston Scientific Corp., Civ. No. 03-027-SLR, 2005 WL 1322966, at *2 (D.Del. June 3, 2005) ("Claim Construction"). The district court refused to construe the "wherein" clause in claim 23 to exclude so-called "180 degrees out of phase" stent designs.

Claim construction is an issue of law, Markman v. Westview Instruments, Inc., 52 F.3d 967, 970-71 (Fed.Cir.1995) (en banc), aff'd, 517 U.S. 370, 116 S.Ct. 1384, 134 L.Ed.2d 577 (1996), that we review without deference, Cybor Corp. v. FAS Technologies Inc., 138 F.3d 1448, 1456 (Fed.Cir.1998) (en banc).

Cordis urges that the district court's construction improperly failed to exclude stents whose strut pairs are arranged "180 degrees out of phase," a phrase that both parties agree is in common usage in stent design. In such a 180-degree out-of-phase arrangement, the struts within each expansion column or ring are connected to form pairs, and the connected ends of the pairs in one ring face the connected ends of the pairs in the next ring, forming a mirror-image pattern. Cordis argues that if claim 23 excludes such 180-degree out-of-phase designs, then Cordis's BX Velocity stent (which uses a 180-degree out-of-phase design) would not infringe claim 36. Cordis illustrated the 180-degree out-of-phase design with a diagram:

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Br. for Pl.-Appellant Cordis Corp. 3.

Cordis argues that the same "wherein" clause appears in both claim 1 and claim 23; that the clauses must have the same meaning; and that the prosecution history shows that the "wherein" clause excludes 180-degree out-of-phase designs. Cordis's argument is a bit confusing. The issue is not the meaning of the "wherein" clause. Rather, the problem stems from the fact that claim 23 and claim 1 use different numbering systems, so that, for example, the "first expansion strut of the second expansion strut pair in the second expansion column" is not the same strut in claim 23 as in claim 1.

Under the numbering system of claim 1, each strut in a column or ring is either the "first" or "second" strut of a pair, each pair in the first ring is a "first ... pair," and each pair in the second ring is a "second ... pair."² Thus in claim 1, the "wherein" clause requires the first strut of every strut pair in the first ring to be offset from the first strut of every strut pair in the second ring, which would not be possible in a 180-degree out-of-phase design. However, under the numbering system of claim 23, each strut in a ring is individually numbered "first ... second ... third ... fourth ...," each pair in the first ring is individually numbered "first ... second ... third ... fourth ...," and each pair in the second ring is individually numbered "first ... second ... third ... fourth ...."³ Thus in claim 23, the "wherein" clause requires only one specific strut (the first strut of the first pair in the first ring) to be offset from one other specific strut (the "first expansion strut of the second expansion strut pair" in the second ring). Cordis numbered a figure from the '021 patent (also known as the Jang patent) to illustrate these different numbering systems:

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