SAN FRANCISCO – An Oakland corporation claims an Ohio company promotes devices that infringe patented technology used to treat a heart issue.
The Regents of the University of California filed a complaint on Nov. 8 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California against AtriCure Inc. alleging patent infringement.
According to the complaint, the plaintiff alleges that on Dec. 26, 2000, it was issued full ownership of several patents titled Device and Method for Forming a Circumferential Block in a Pulmonary Vein, a method of treatment for Atrial Fibrillation or AFib.
The plaintiff holds AtriCure Inc. responsible because the defendant allegedly induced medical practitioners to use its devices to specifically perform plaintiff's patented method in violation of the asserted patents, and sold devices that have no substantial non-infringing uses, which allegedly significantly contributed to the infringement.
The plaintiff requests a trial by jury and seeks judgment against the defendant, damages, interest, costs, disbursements, attorneys' fees, expenses and further relief the court deems just. It is represented by Mark T. Jansen, Pilar R. Stillwater and Galen P. Sallomi of Crowell & Moring LLP in San Francisco and Kathryn L. Clune and Ali H.K. Tehrani of Crowell & Moring LLP in Washington, D.C.
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California Case number 16-cv-06506