Rival loses appeal to revive Boston Scientific lawsuit

Medtronic Inc. lost an Appeals Court bid to revive patent infringement lawsuits against Guidant Corp. and Boston Scientific Corp. over cardiac stents. The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld a judge's 2005 ruling that neither Guidant nor Boston Scientific infringe Medtronic patents. The Appeals Court also upheld a decision to throw out claims of theft of trade secrets. A Boston Scientific spokesman said the company is pleased with the ruling. Boston Scientific acquired Guidant this year for $27 billion. (Bloomberg)

Columbus Center, the mixed-use project that will rise above a deck over the Massachusetts Turnpike, has cleared the last big hurdle in the permitting process, a spokesman for Winn Development said. The Massachusetts Turnpike Authority said it executed ground- and air-rights lease agreements after the governor's office signed off on the deal. With an estimated cost of $624 million , the project envisions 450 residences, a hotel, retail space, and public parks. Construction on the deck should begin within a month, and the project could be completed by 2010 . (Chris Reidy)

Welch Foods Inc. , the Concord company perhaps best known for its grape juice and jellies, is no longer using animal testing to demonstrate product health benefits. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said the change in policy came after PETA vowed to organize a boycott. Welch's spokesman Jim Callahan said PETA influenced its decision but did not force the change that had long been considered. (Chris Reidy)

Liberty Mutual Group, the number four business insurer in the United States, stopped sponsoring a Tour de France cycling team two days after its manager was arrested in Spain's biggest antidoping raid. Manolo Saiz, manager of the Madrid-based Liberty Seguros team, was among five men detained in the raid that yielded ``copious" notes about drug-taking by cyclists as well as 200 bags of athletes' blood, human growth hormones, and steroids, police said. (Bloomberg)

Enernoc Inc. , a Boston energy conservation business, has bought similarly focused, Seattle-based Celerity Energy Partners in a cash-and-stock deal for about $3 million, according to Enernoc chief executive Tim Healy. Both companies run what are called ``demand response" programs in which big businesses, institutions, and industrial electric customers are paid bounties by regional grid operators to curtail electricity use at times of peak demand when wholesale prices soar. The deal, Enernoc's third acquisition in the last year, increased its business base by about 15 percent. (Peter J. Howe)

Apple Computer Inc. can't use subpoenas to learn where online journalists get information about unreleased company products, a California Appeals Court ruled. Online writers are protected by the state's reporter ``shield law," as well as by the First Amendment right to free speech, the state Court of Appeal in San Jose ruled, reversing a lower court. Apple subpoenaed the e-mail provider of Jason O'Grady, publisher of O'Grady's PowerPage, an Internet site that posted information in November 2004 about an unreleased Apple product. The ruling establishes that Web reporters have the same right to protect sources as print reporters, said lawyers at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which sided with the journalists. The ruling overturned a March 2005 ruling. (Bloomberg)