Bard scores large settlement over stent-graft patent. Source: C.R. Bard

C.R. Bard reported that a U.S. District Court in Arizona has entered judgment in favor of the firm's vascular interventional technology patent-infringement suit against W.L. Gore & Associates, and that a jury has awarded it $185 million in damage compensation.

The court ruled that Gore failed to prove that Bard's patent number 6,436,135 was unenforceable due to inequitable conduct. As previously announced, on Dec. 11, 2007, a jury found that Gore willfully infringed Bard's patent through the sale of Gore's ePTFE vascular grafts and stent-grafts.

Gore may file post-trial motions with the court and may appeal the judgment to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, according to the Murray Hill, N.J.-based Bard.